The Night Sky and the Trembling Ball.

I’ve given the night walks up now, at least until next autumn if I’m still here. The decision was driven partly by the refusal of my old knee injury to settle down, and partly by the bad conscience I developed over my habit of prowling the public roads of the Shire at 9 o’clock at night like some latter day Nazgul with a nose for cheap deodorant.

I did, however, go and stand on the lawn at about 10.30, just to see whether the night sky had anything interesting to offer. It did: the eastern horizon (that’s the top of the hill behind my house) was suffused with an unusually bright and extensive white glow. Since the dawn was still so far off, I assumed it must have been the moon about to rise and lighting up the misty atmosphere. Having come to the pragmatic conclusion, I decided to regard it as mysterious anyway, ’cos that’s what I do.

And then I caught sight of the round thing on the lawn again, standing stock still in the torchlight. It was my little friend the hedgehog. He was about two feet away, regarding me with a sideways stare and trembling. He looked frightened, poor chap, so I turned off the torch straight away and left him in peace.