First - another good news story, and an example of how important it is that YOU are active participants in helping to create change. You might not think of yourself as an activist, but already you have started down that path by signing up! 

Chris and Caroline Paxton from Helmshore in Lancashire were concerned about a new development not far from them - so began what is becoming the most effective weapon in our arsenal - polite and persistent letter writing! I was delighted to read what a Taylor Wimpey spokesperson told the LancsLive website 

“As a responsible homebuilder we are committed to building communities rather than just homes and the hedgehog highway is just one example of this.

“Preserving and enhancing local wildlife is a key consideration when we plan and build new Taylor Wimpey developments.

I think it is wonderful to hear a developer speaking so positively. But this cannot be allowed to disappear as a temporary coat of greenwash - we need to make sure that the holes are delivered and we need to hold them to their claim to be ‘preserving and enhancing local wildlife’. 

For some Halloween is a time for spookiness and horror - and there is little more horrific for hedgehogs than what confronts them now and all year long. Our carelessness costs lives. There was a story in the press about a hedgehog caught in litter - this is something we can so easily remedy. 

We are also in the run up to a time of bonfires - we may not be having the large community events of years gone by, but still, we must remember … if we want to make a perfect hedgehog home we can do little better than create a bonfire! Please follow the advice from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society about bonfires. 

But this is also a time of year for stories and I want to introduce you to the work of Rima Staines who weaves the most wonderful tales into her art. Here she talks about the image that accompanies this update - a perfect springboard for Halloween:

“As for the Hotchiwitchi ... Hedgehogs were typically accused of stealing the milk from cows at night and of stealing eggs and also apples by picking them up on their spines. They have also been associated with witches in the past and obviously they have a long association with Gypsies, who call them 'Hotchiwitchi' or 'Pal of the Boor' (brother of the hedge). As you know they would roast them on the fire wrapped in clay. I saw the link between the liminality of the universally hated and feared Travellers, the fact that both they and the hedgehog are accused of stealing, and they're also hedge-dwellers, and indeed witches fit in here too as socially feared and liminal (yet powerful) characters. I've long been fascinated by the margins of society both literally and metaphorically. This long-known idea of the edges, though feared, being the place where the true magic resides, and those who walk the hedgerows and edge-places will know this. For this reason the hedges and the edges are not dispensable! We cannot hold the centre without the margins. In this drawing I attached amulets to the hedgehog's spines to acknowledge the wisdom and potent magic in the creature itself and all it stands for. 

“Our travelling storytelling theatre Hedgespoken occupies and explores similar territories and the journey we are on with both Hedgespoken and its accompanying publishing branch Hedgespoken Press is very much about giving voice to those liminal places - both within and without - in word and image, and in re-honouring the true magic of story spoken by firelight.” 

Thank you for your continued support - thank you for writing lovely reviews - and thank you for checking your bonfires before you light them!