Firm friends

Over the past few days I have sat on the decking with half a dozen peanuts waiting patiently for Chippie.  Everyday he has visited and gladly whisked away the peanuts to his secret store in readiness for winter.  Occasionally he will stay and eat one, but mostly he stuffs them in his cheeks and scampers off.  I put the nuts closer and closer each time and remained quite still but always spoke to him whenever he arrived. Last night, finally, he decided I was kinda OK and decided to take the nuts from my hand.  He also hung around longer and sat at my feet looking expectantly up at me!  I think I have a friend now!

Chippie has a friend called Stumpy on account of his lack of a tail!  Lovely Man decided that if I had a friend in Chippie then perhaps Stumpy might be his friend.  Unfortunately Stumpy is quite young and impatient.  He scurried around Lovely Man's feet and when no nut appeared as quickly as he might have like he bit his toe!

Introducing Chippie...

the magician!  This is Chippie.  He's a real cutie!  He's been coming around most everyday from time to time.  Now he's found we have an endless supply of peanuts his visits are even more frequent.  This morning he decided to pose for a couple of photos.

He's still quite unsure of us and so, just to be safe, he's adopted a 'take 'em by surprise' tactic.  He approaches quietly underneath the decking and pops up through the left hand side railing.  Once he's got what he came for he runs behind the right hand divider rail.  Knowing that we are waiting for him to pop back round said rail he dives, unseen, back under the decking and creeps up behind us from the left again!  He then performs a little magic trick.  Now you see the nut.  Now you don't!!