Yet another squirrel story...

...and this time he came home with me!

Now, I have never been one to see conspiracies everywhere I look. I'm quite happy to believe that Princess Diana died in an accident and yeap, I'm even willing to admit that some bunch of American men may just have landed on the moon. However, when it comes to penguins and squirrels I am beginning to get just a little bit unnerved.

First it was the penguins. Meeting a Bert was pretty coincidental in itself, considering that I am Mary Poppins but of course, in meeting him I also became acquainted with his dancing penguins. That is where it began to get a little weird. Penguins started showing up everywhere. I was watching the Muppet Christmas Carol this year, which I have watched every year since the kids were little, but THIS year a scene containing dancing, ice skating penguins had been mysteriously added to the movie. It definitely was never there before. Then my son came home from a trip to the zoo and was full of stories about copulating penguins everywhere he looked (Apparently Mr Penguin slaps Mrs Penguin on the ass as they have their jollies, but that is a story for another time!). In addition to this, penguins seem to be popping up everywhere..on TV, in magazines, on friends' blogs...I tell you, there is mischief afoot here.

Hot on the tails of the penguins, came the squirrels. I have already written about how they followed Bert and I around in London and how they are now watching everything we do. Be in no doubt, they are everywhere.

Today I decided to meet my friend Manuela for lunch in a lovely garden centre close to where she lives. It sells all kinds of plants and other things for the garden but also has a restaurant and an indoor shopping area stocked with lots of really lovely things. We had our lunch and decided to browse a little. And then I saw *him*. He was just sitting there. Staring at me. No seriously..he really was. A squirrel. Yes, so ok, he may not be a REAL squirrel but he was still watching me, and even Manuela couldn't quite believe where we found him. He wasn't sitting with the other soft toys...oh no, that would not have been unusual at all. Nope, he was sitting completely on his own in front of the jigsaw puzzles. Again, not that strange in itself, but the jigsaw puzzle looked rather familiar to me and I laughed out loud when I realised what it was a picture of...I could hardly believe it so I took a photo of the box with my cell:

Yeap - it's Heceta Head lighthouse - one of the ones that Bert visited just yesterday, and which he published a pic of this morning. And there it was in a garden centre in Huntingdon, England (the town where, incidentally, Oliver Cromwell was born), with a freakin stuffed squirrel sitting right in front of it, staring at me (Oh and the jigsaw puzzle behind ot contained lots of pictures of dogs. Including poodles. Go figure).

Anyway, I bought the squirrel of course and have decided that I shall take the evil little creature on my trip to America with me. I think that maybe that is what the squirrels have been trying to tell me recently..they wish me to smuggle one of their number into the USA with me so that he can carry out top secret surveillance for the Secret Squirrel Society. I know this will be a risk, but I feel I have no choice. I may even be made to take pics of him everywhere I go on my travels...I shall not want to, but I doubt I shall have any choice in the matter. It is the squirrel way...

Oh and here he is...he LOOKS totally evil, right? Would YOU mess with him?

Nope, thought not..me neither!