I was going to write this first thing today but life got complicated ... I got back from Bridport Literary Festival yesterday evening to find that the gas cooker had eventually died (and in the process was leaking gas) - so had to turn off mains and this morning arrange for the cooker to be properly disconnected ... and plot what to do next.

Like many people, I imagine, I have jobs that need doing around the house that will require other jobs to be done, and these in turn, require more jobs to be done so - inertia tends to hold sway. This time, I have no choice. Please imagine the small stream of profanities ...

So - Bridport Literary Festival - what a lovely place Bridport is, a Dorset town I know well. I arrived the afternoon before the event as I was booked in to talk in two different schools the next morning and did not fancy a 0500 alarm call! This gave me a chance to head to Charmouth Beach - to look for fossils. I love looking for fossils, though this time I was unlucky with the tides ...and then got hit by a storm that almost unfooted me (and I am built like a Weeble!) - amazing sensations of being pummelled by the elements and just what I needed. So wet was I that I had to stop in a second hand shop to find 'new' trousers before arriving at my hosts!!

I love talking to school groups - and I was lucky enough to have 170 kids in two schools - 7-10 year olds - and they were great! It is always an interesting challenge - to hold their attention without causing a riot ... but luckily hedgehogs are good at that! Thanks to Tom Hughes for taking the photo ... I think this was just before the moment I met Erica ... I had done my usual job of explaining the importance of not dropping litter, making holes in fences and checking bonfires when it came to question time ... and Erica did the thing I pretend to hate but actually love - she asked me a question to which I did not know the answer! She asked me whether baby hedgehogs were born with their teeth ...  I wrote to her school this morning providing the answer - no - the milk teeth (known as deciduous teeth) arrive after about 3 weeks and all the adult teeth are usually in place by the end of 5 months. 

It is important - so important - that we remember how necessary asking good questions really is ... I hope Erica never stops! 

Now, Bridport is part of a flourishing network of Dorset towns and villages that are part of Dorset Mammal Groups Hedgehog Friendly Town network - these are the people who brought us the Ghost Hedgehogs from a few years ago. 

Chris and Roz, my hosts for the night before the school events, were talking about the people coming to speak at the festival - and I was delighted to see that my dear friend Hannah Bourne-Taylor was going to be speaking about her first book, Fledgling - which I read before we were friends and was one of the best books I read last year (if I had read it afterwards I would have doubted my review!)

I will be seeing Hannah on Saturday 5th November and I want to take this opportunity to encourage you to come and join me at Speakers' Corner at noon - where she (a former model) will stand on a soap box and present 'The Feather Speech' - a call out to us all to help birds, and in particular the Swifts she loves. So far, so not unusual. But ... she will be (almost) naked! World famous body artist Guido Daniele will spend most of the previous day decorating Hannah with feathers !!! This will be a bold, spectacular event and I hope to see some of you there! Hannah will then walk, still unclad, to Downing Street to deliver a letter outlining her, very reasonable, demands!  

Why am I so interested in a campaign about swifts? Well, I have a deep love for these birds, and fear there might be a summer soon when they do not screech down the streets of East Oxford. But also because we share a moment in campaigning. Back in July 2019 - when our petition was young - we got a moment that was so nearly a victory when the late James Brokenshire used his last moment as Secretary of State to change the National Planning Policy Framework (very important if boring book!) to include guidance for all new developments to come with both hedgehog highways, and swift bricks, as standard. The reason I still continue campaigning is because that guidance has no teeth, and this is why Hannah is also working on this subject ... she has a great catchphrase - #PassionIsASuperpower! 

Ok - better go and sort out kitchen things ... wish me luck!

Any pennies in the hat, always appreciated - and if you want to see more of what I get up to, I am on twitter (for now) and instagram. See you soon!