Henry smiles for the camera!
Having been awake since early January, and waiting for suitable weather, Henry is outside full-time now. On most days recently he has been out for a few hours when there has been any sunshine. Otherwise he has been housed and fed indoors as described in previous posts. I have noticed this year that he has been nowhere near as lively indoors as in previous years, though he has been eating quite well, which I see as a good sign. On the other hand, when in the garden, even on cool days, he seems more contented, wandering about and munching the occasional weed.
Henry's choice of nightly accommodation is under the Skimmia bush (right of centre), where it is relatively sheltered from wind and rain and he is insulated within a pile of hay.
A couple of evenings ago a mild night was forecast and I decided that he could stay out all night. I had intended to provide a generous quantity of hay under his favourite bush, where he has spent the night in previous years, and then make sure that he found it. The trouble was, I couldn’t find him. He must have tucked himself away in a secluded corner somewhere so I left him. Sure enough, yesterday morning he was out in the sun again. So yesterday afternoon as the shadows got longer and the sun started to leave our garden I showed him the pile of hay under his bush and a few minutes later he had buried himself in it almost completely out of sight.
It seems likely that Henry will stay out now so long as night temperatures continue to improve. All I have to do is keep an eye on the weather forecast.
Ah, the ever-enigmatic Henry
I’m glad he’s enjoying the weather, I’m trying to do the same thing here myself! Having a stunning weekend, but there’s rain forecast for next week.
How old is Henry now? I think you mentioned awhile back but I can’t recall. Wasn’t it around 27 years old?
Darn it, meant to add your garden is lovely!
Thanks Digital Dame. The picture shows only a small corner of a small garden but you will see more later, either here or at http://grannysramblings.wordpress.com/.
We have no idea how old Henry is, and he is not saying! He has been with us for 24-25 years and I am sure that he was at least 20-30 years old – and possibly a great deal older – when he found us. It is almost impossible to “age” a tortoise because, unlike trees, they do not necessarily produce annual rings on the individual scutes of their shells. In some years there might be 3-4 rings and in others none at all depending on their condition and age and it is very difficult to count the more recent rings as a tortoise gets older because they are so close together.
So you are spot-on in describing Henry as enigmatic.
Stopping by with regards to Henry, and a bit of new information about the turtle I met in Mississippi. I ran across a photo on WeatherUnderground of a quite similar turtle, taken by a woman who lives only a hundred miles or so from where I was traveling. She informed me that I had, indeed, met a “red-eared slider”. They are handsome – I’d admired the yellow and green, but didn’t know he had red ears because he wouldn’t oblige me by poking his head out.
I understand the red-eared but didn’t quite get “slider”. She said she didn’t know, either, unless they’re given to sliding into the water rather than walking in. We’re going to do more research.
Lots of info about red-eared sliders can be found via Google. Apparently they are kept as pets,, even here in the UK, and they really are turtles rather than tortoises so need lots of water in which to swim (and it has to be changed frequently) and also like sunbathing on dry land in temperatures up to 85-90 degrees F. Such temperatures are (so far anyway) very infrequent here. It makes me grateful that Henry’s needs are so much simpler – though just as important from Henry’s point of view of course.