I try so very hard to hold back on updates - there is such a flood of funny, odd, serious and cute stories that pass across my desk each day - I don't want to overburden you.

But this update is special. It marks a serious step up in our campaign.

Yesterday I got to meet ... Kit Malthouse - the Minister of Housing to whom this petition is directed. 

We still have a planned meeting with my MP on 4th June - but this opportunity was a very pleasant surprise. He is well aware that it is Hedgehog Awareness Week (as I am sure you are all too!) - and had a meeting with one of the country's biggest developers - at the Kidbrooke Village housing development in the London borough of Greenwich. Now this new estate is replacing the Ferrier estate that was all concrete and deck access - with homes that are much more integrated into greenery ... and therefore an example of how housing can potentially help wildlife, and obviously my concern, hedgehogs.

The Minister's team had arranged with BBC Breakfast, BBC London, ITV London to come and film - I had been in touch with Jeremy Vine show and Today Programme as well ... but ... while I was being interviewed on Monday in the ITV studios in London for a different hedgehog piece, the news that a royal baby was on the way broke - and pretty much everything else stopped ...

So - no media. But ... I was not expecting to find myself spending three hours with Tony Pidgley - the founder and chair of Berkeley Homes. He seems to care about wildlife - he speaks with passion about nature. And I want to believe him. I hope that from this meeting we will be able to develop a standard practice for developers - or at least his company - to incorporate hedgehog highways in new developments. It might be that while the Minister was the obvious target to talk to, the developers themselves prove to be the more important people to persuade.

Anyway - that meeting with Tony Pidgley would not have happened without you - your names on the petition pushed me into the arena. Now I will continue to fight with all I can muster to help get hedgehog highways threaded through the land.

Oh - and then I got home - had hardly slept the night before and took to the sofa for a snooze to be woken a few minutes later by a knock on the door - a hedgehog had been seen out in the park behind my house - in the nursery (part of Flo's in the Park) - lethargic and being stared at by the assembled children. So I had to bounce up and head off to the rescue ... he is now tucked up with a wonderful rescuer near me who works with Little Foxes. If you see a hedgehog out in the day 'sunbathing' or appearing 'drunk' - get it in a box and call BHPS - 01584 890801

Hedgehog Awareness Week - no rest!! (and thank you to my lovely neighbour Zoe for the photo)