Remember when I told you about Isabella and the orchids? Yes, a bit of a tangent from hedgehogs, but stick with me ... there is news!

So - the story in brief if you missed it - 11 year old Isabella had spotted two orchids - a pyramidal and a bee - on a small roundabout near her house. She had seen them before and two years ago had written to our local council asking them to not mow ... to let them seed. 

A few weeks ago she was telling me about the flowers and I asked if I could photograph her - and told her I would prod the council, because while they had left the roundabout unmown, they had not replied to her original letter, and I thought that rude!

We made some lovely photos together and I was about to put a tweet out on Monday morning when her mum let me know that just a few hours after we had posed with orchids, the roundabout had been mown.

After school we went back, took more photos and I put out a tweet - which got picked up by Chris Packham and George Monbiot among others - nearly a million people saw it, the Daily Mail and the Sun both ran articles, we did local tv and papers too ... 

So - what is new? Well, Channel 4 news got in touch and said they wanted to run the story ... and to have an interview with a local councillor ... that was exciting! Back to the bald roundabout we went - and Isabella sat on the grass talking with the councillor and I heard her say something amazing ...

They have changed the mowing regime for this roundabout. Next year it will be mown in late August, allowing the flowers to seed. And the reason they changed it was because of the letter Isabella wrote (helped by quite a vigorous social media campaign!)

We won!

Now, we could have set our sights on getting the entire county to change mowing patterns for verges etc ... but I am a firm believer in finding small victories, and then using them as a lens with which to magnify the campaign. And now not only does Isabella have a feather in her cap - but we also know we can get a change if we ask for it. 

So - do you have a precious verge near you, rich in flowers? If so, write to your local council - and ask that it receive the same attention as Isabella's. Loads of small victories will add up to one enormous win!

And why write about this in an update about hedgehogs? Because we are working on the same principle here - yes, I would LOVE to have legislative change to properly protect our prickly friends - but until then, lets find smaller targets - new developments in your neighbourhood - ask them to include hedgehog highways. New fence put up by your neighbour, ask about a hole ... these are all small victories - and we get enough of them - WE WILL WIN!