I strode out onto Llanbadarn Road this morning in the still pitch dark and saw an object in the middle of the road. I thought it was a seagull chick. It had that nonedescript greyness to it. Was it sleeping? Or was it distressed or wounded? Before I had time to investigate I heard and saw a car. It was moving fast, its light shining a beam of white across the tarmac. The creature roused itself up onto its feet. Will it make it? I held my breath. It made it. The car zoomed past. I watched as it scurried off making a bee line for the wilderness of the garden belonging to the property developer who died a year or so ago. It wasn’t a seagull chick but a hedgehog. I’ve rarely seen one at large. It was a big one, clearly an adult. It moved quickly, it’s little back legs moving at a rapid pace. I was lifted by the sight. A wildness to treasure.
Two diggers on caterpillar feet are beginning to flatten our garden. I am made sad by it.
