The wisdom of Piglet

“I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,” said Pooh.

“There, there,” said Piglet “I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.”

A.A.Milne

Advertisement

Isra, the hedgehog on video.

Regular readers will remember that I blogged about a sick hedgehog here. She was named Isra and is being cared for by Jacqui in a Hedgehog Rescue haven. Jacqui has several “hogs” in her care, returning them to good health so that they can be released to a rural property far from roads and relatively free of predators once winter is over.

Earlier this week Jacqui updated Isra’s progress. Isra now weighs a kilo and her new quills are growing now that the mange has been cured. Naturally Isra would like to hibernate but that would stop her quill regrowth and delay her release in spring. In order to prevent hibernation she is being kept very warm on her heating disc again.

Jacqui also posted this video on the Hedgehog Rescue (NZ) Facebook page. If you turn the sound up on your computer you can hear Jacqui talking to Isra and describing her as friendly and inquisitive.

Thanks again Jacqui for the treatment and care you have given to Isra and the other hedgehogs in your care :-))

A quote for Mother’s Day

“ it was not until we saw the picture of the earth, from the moon, that we realized how small and how helpless this planet is – something that we must hold in our arms and care for”. Margaret Mead

Some welcome news

How often news reports contain only doom and gloom but today I heard an item that made my heart sing and gives me hope.

The people responsible for doing home care service reviews in 5 District Health Boards around the country are going to return to that old fashioned concept of meeting people in their own homes to do these assessments.

For the last year assessments have been conducted via telephone. The move to this, at the time, appalled so many people yet despite valid protests and concerns the scheme went ahead. It was heart-wrenching to hear of elderly or disabled people losing their support systems after a telephone interview.

I love emails and the contacts that the internet brings to me but I also love and value getting together with people. We cannot do everything from a remote location and the care of people seems to me to be one area of life that requires trusting, face to face relationships.

“Nature’s first green is gold……

I have had a poem on my mind for days now. Despite the very, very wintry weather we have been experiencing here since last Sunday night, there are signs everywhere that spring is not far away.
I have noticed, in particular, that the willow tree branches are either turning golden or have a russet gold hue. My father quoted Robert Frost’s powerful poem on this phenomenon around this time of the year, just a few weeks before his death in September 1989.

“Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day,
Nothing gold can stay.” Robert Frost.

We read this poem at his memorial service.

But this year it speaks to me doubly as we watch one of our cats require increased supportive care from the vet and under go more tests as we try to determine the cause of his lack of appetite, high inflammation levels and spells of general malaise, despite our love and best efforts at home.

Spring with its vitality and message of new life can be harsh when events in that season tell of the opposite.

Mindful reminder

Today I have been reminded on several occasions to be aware that everyone is carrying some issue, challenge or burden. Being kind to one another seems a good place to start.