BS: Hedgehogs

Subject: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Feb 15 - 09:06 PM

Yet another classic thread saved by Punkfolkrocker

---

Subject: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Leadbelly
Date: 12 Dec 14 - 08:02 AM

Hi, I'm living in Lower Bavaria, Germany, and recognized that even today hedgehogs are active. I do feed them regularly but I think most responsible might be the relatively moderate climate this year.

Who made similar observations and from where? Thanks.

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Stu
Date: 12 Dec 14 - 08:22 AM

I was in Bavaria last month. Lovely part of the world, superb fossil sites.

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Dec 14 - 12:46 PM

No hedgehogs around still looking for something to eat instead of going to sleep for some month'? Come on please.

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Dec 14 - 07:11 PM

I've always felt that hedgehogs should learn to share.

(--Sorry! I'll leave now....)

Don Firth

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 12 Dec 14 - 10:16 PM

There's something very Terry Pratchett on the horizon in this thread.

I can feel it in my bones...


Jay

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Dec 14 - 10:41 PM

Paul Openshaw, The Dorset singer songwriter has made hedgehog boxes for all his pals for Christmas. He feeds the hedgehog in his garden with dogmeat. the hedgehog has got so fat the he has had to make the door of his hedgehog house bigger.

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 12 Dec 14 - 10:45 PM

The dominant cynical dark humoured part of me could have posted recipes
for traditional west country hedgehog pies...

.. but as it's nearly xmas...

winnie-the-poo-bin-hedgehog

Hedgehogs are quite a special and respected charitable cause in our part of the world.
My old mum is obsessed with the little spikey critters.
We treated her to an open day visit to the rescue centre for her 81st birthday...

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 13 Dec 14 - 04:57 AM

Not Mister Pratchett , but
Incredible String Band

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Dec 14 - 05:32 AM

Dinsdale!

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 14 - 05:35 AM

Going by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. Depending on the weather, hedgehogs in the UK are most likely to start hibernation between November and January. I don't know how Bavaria would compare.

We had a hedgehog visiting the garden earlier this year. It stopped coming in Oct/Nov. I've assumed it moved on. This visitor is only the second one I've seen in the garden in over 10 years.

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 13 Dec 14 - 11:45 AM

If I were to make a list of things in the UK that I wish we had in North America, hedgehogs would be at the very top.

The British royal family would be at the bottom.

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 13 Dec 14 - 01:32 PM

How about a number matched deal? One 'hog for on royal going even unto the third cousins twice removed?

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 13 Dec 14 - 06:13 PM

Just what we need:

The Hedgehog Song from Wyrd Sisters in Canberra, 2012.


Jay

---

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Joe_F
Date: 13 Dec 14 - 10:05 PM

Confirmation in US academia may be found here.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 04:45 AM

haven't you got hedgehogs in the USA?

If you haven't - it might be a good idea to introduce them . periodically we sort of worry about them. You've got more room. perhaps you could put them somewhere where they wouldn't get run over by traffic.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,#
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 11:08 AM

"You've got more room. perhaps you could put them somewhere where they wouldn't get run over by traffic."

Is that a trick question?

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 11:54 AM

I was thinking of Yellowstone Park or the Blue Ridge Mountains - lots of room there for a hedgehog to grow up and spread his spikes....

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,#
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 12:01 PM

True, Al, but if the Yellowstone caldera blows, what then?

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Musket
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 12:10 PM

The alleged dog has a truce going with a hedgehog who wanders around our garden all night in the summer. They almost "get on" together.

That said, hedgehog flavoured crisps are about the best thing to have come out of the '80s. You don't see them these days though?

Hedgehogs should, according to Tommy Coyne, a diddy who drinks in my local, be fried in parsley butter, after marinading in a dry rub of brown sugar, paprika, parsley and garlic.

Just saying...

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Joe_F
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 07:44 PM

I have seen a hedgehog in the USA, but only as an imported pet.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 07:49 PM

Don't like hedgehogs.
They're just a bunch of pricks.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 03:30 AM

everybody likes seeing hedgehogs. it cheers you up seeing the jolly little fellows. if you had a few around in the USA you would enjoy their company.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Musket
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 05:25 AM

Eventually they would. After a couple of hundred years of civil rights campaigns for them, segregation and public speeches / assassinations and all that.

Or possibly serve them covered in spray on cheese with fries..

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 11:04 AM

whereas our history has been a model of gentility sweetness and light.

i think we should offer all hedgehogs a gap year in the Grand Canyon.

i think it would be nice to have a few of those cardinal birds flapping round in return.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 11:56 AM

The rest of the world must look at us with disdain and pity
if the most exciting of our indigenous wildlife is the hedgehog.


Now that we've got used to imported grey squirrels,
my wife would love to see monkeys, red pandas, and koala bears
roaming wild and free in the parks and countryside of Great Britain.

But she does understand why tigers might not be such a good idea...

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 12:39 PM

there is a tiger near where we live. the beast of Bockhampton. he eats the occasional sheep - but he keeps a low profile and doesn't bother anybody.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 01:39 PM

From Wikipedia:

"During the 1980s, "hedgehog-flavour" crisps were introduced in Britain, although the product did not contain any hedgehog."

And some of my fellow Americans accuse the British of having odd senses of humour.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Musket
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 02:10 PM

No, just taste buds

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 03:35 PM

In one looks at the history of other animals introduced to foreign territories, hedge hogs are far better off at home. They do look like endearing mites. I am happy to see them in pics.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 04:09 PM

I suppose one could sprinkle almost any sort of flavouring on crisps and call it "hedgehog-flavour", the presumption being that most people have never eaten a hedgehog and would have no idea how one might taste. And should someone who actually has eaten a hedgehog complain that your crisps don't actually taste like hedgehog, just tell him that the one he ate wasn't seasoned properly.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 07:56 PM

Re. hedgehog crisps not having hedgehogs in them.
I have the same complaint with buffalo wings.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Joe_F
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 08:34 PM

DTM: The markets are full of wonders of biological engineering. I myself have bought lamb arm chops & boneless ribs & chicken fingers.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 09:08 PM

There's a Louisiana-based potato chip (crisps) company which sells a "crawfish-flavored" product. They have no crawfish in them, but they are seasoned with a spice mix similar to what's used for boiling crawfish. Does it make them taste like crawfish? No, it makes them taste like potato chips with crawfish seasoning mix on them.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 09:22 PM

another thing we haven't got is bison. perhaps the weather would be too cold for them in England. still it would be nice have a few of them wandering round. maybe in the hihlands or or on Cannock Chase. or the the new forest....

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: LadyJean
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 09:54 PM

One used to be able to buy African Pygmy Hedgehogs as pets. I don't know if they're still available. I considered breeding them now and again. Every time it seemed like a good idea I stuck my head under a cold tap until it went away.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 02:28 AM

And then there are those of us whose musical past includes listening to Hedgehog Pie.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 05:00 AM

the Coventry guys....bit off your beaten track Musket?

Poor old Jim, he wouldn't reckon they were real folk music...

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Rumncoke
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 05:43 AM

In my rambles I have sometimes found what is left of a hedgehog after something has managed to eat one - basically a strip of prickles.

Whatever it was it must have been very determined to get to the meat inside the spikes.

It wasn't a fox, unless it was one which had had a very long bath recently - could possibly have been a badger.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 06:03 AM

i once chased away a gang of rooks who were attacking a hedgehog..

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 07:36 AM

wouldn't it be great to wake up in the morning and there was a bison in the garden...

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 10:05 AM

wouldn't it be great to wake up in the morning and there was a bison in the garden...

That used to happen in Jacksonville, Florida, when I lived there back in the 1970s. Earlier in the century, a huge tract of land (at least 100 square miles) had been strip mined by a phosphate mining operation. It was left almost completely denuded, like a small desert with sand dunes, no roads, and little vegetation. It was not very desirable for development because the topsoil had been removed and little would grow there without expensive soil rehabilitation.

At some point, bison escaped from a ranch attempting to raise them for their meat and found a home in that wasteland, where they lived relatively free of human interaction. Years later, as the more desirable land for development began to get used up, housing developments started to crop up on the edges of the old phosphate mine and reports started coming in of people waking up to find bison grazing on their lawns.

I'm sure that the old phosphate mine has been turned into a giant housing tract/strip mall during the forty years that have passed since I moved away from there. I wonder what happened to the bison.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 11:18 AM

There's a bison in my bathroom .... with h & c taps.
;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 11:42 AM

I remember Hedgehog Pie. The Green Lady the album was called. I still have it, it had half decent version of "The Burming of Auchindoon" on it.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 01:55 PM

Hedgehog pie ?

might be unsavoury enough for some animal lovers;
but what about rumours that Tescos in Cornwall & Glastonbury
has been caught selling Unicorn pasties...

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: frogprince
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 02:11 PM

Big Al, if yer thinkin' of North American bison/buffalo, critters that thrived thru the seasons on the Dakota plains would think they were in a vacation paradise in your territory.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: LadyJean
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 09:05 PM

Lays is having their Do Us A Flavor promotion again. One could always suggest hedgehog

I've seen Haggis Crisps, but haven't tried them.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Janie
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 09:31 PM

Babysat the kindergarten class pet hedgehog one long weekend. Very boring. For me. Perhaps terrifying for the wee critter, who stayed curled up in a defensive ball for 3 days. I assume it was constantly alarmed by the scent of our 3 dogs, which we kept out of that room for that weekend, but still....I had expectations from reading lots of Redwall books with my son.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 10:49 PM

celebrate your inner hedgehog...

http://www.kigu.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/k/i/kigu_-_july48085.jpg

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,#
Date: 25 Feb 15 - 09:12 AM

When I first saw the thread title I thought it would be about Wall Street.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Joe_F
Date: 25 Feb 15 - 08:45 PM

Two important facts:
1. It knows one big thing.
2. It can scarcely be buggered at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 05:34 AM

yes it must be very lonely for gay hedgehogs....

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 08:47 AM

Joe F (and Big Al now I think):
Why haven't they done it at Spithead,
As they've done it at Harvard and Yale,
And also at Oxford and Cambridge,
By shaving the spines off its tail?

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 11:54 AM

have they got a tail?

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 01:42 PM

uh oh... I hope it's a tail...

I've been stroking it for 10 minutes every time I pick up and cuddle little Spiny Tiggy-winkle at the petting zoo...