Oh what a few days that has been - talking in Cornwall, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire - I have had a great time with really enthusiastic audiences. Calstock is a wonderfully strange village on the River Tamar - when I arrived I wondered at how many people would come … and got over 100! Then Freshford  near Bradford on Avon with another hundred or so people (thank you Paul for making this happen)— and a morning session in the primary school. And Tuesday night a local gardening club … have a break until next week now!

But there was something that came up on this adventure … eco-anxiety - are you familiar with the term? I have heard about it - and while staying with a kind family who put me up after one of the talks I was told how their 12 year old has been really suffering … how this lovely kid - I met them at breakfast - now found it hard to even watch nature programmes, because they were so sad at what was being lost.

I recognise this upset - I remember (maybe some of you do too) growing up in the 1980s when the imminence of nuclear holocaust was hovering over us all. But I don’t think it was quite as pervasive as eco-anxiety is now. 

I am struck by the challenge to tread the line in the most humane way - we need to ensure young people are aware of what has been lost and what is at risk of slipping away if we do nothing. We need them to be angry at the stupidity of their elders as we have squandered such wealth and beauty. But - how do we do this without generating anxiety? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

I think an important way to tackle this sort of anxiety is to be honest but to avoid hyperbole. Refer to the science, not the headlines. Additionally, there is still great beauty to be found - take the time to find the patches of hope - the evidence that we, as a species, can turn things around. Show that to the young people you know. 

Perhaps one way to cope is through poetry. For anyone near Oxford there is an event over half term that has me wishing that I was younger! So - if you are 14-21 years of age - or know someone who is - you can get a two hour eco-poetry workshop with the fantastic Isabel Galleymore. 

Having just pulled back from the edges of things about which to be anxious, I am going to ruin it all now - sorry. We are heading towards the time of year where traditionally bonfires have been lit (and don’t get me started on fireworks ….)

Hedgehogs are amazing creatures, we all know that. And one of the ways they have come so close to our hearts is due to their lack of fight or flight response - when frightened, they frown and then roll into a ball. This is very effective against most predators. But not with bonfires - and if we have just built the most amazing hedgehog house (because that is what a bonfire looks like to a hedgehog) - they will make a home and then not move when the threat arrives. PLEASE - only burn a pile you build during that day.

Finally - well, nearly - Vale Wildlife Hospital has been running hedgehog first aid courses for years - but they are over in the west, which makes it hard for some people to get to - so it is great to see one being organised for Ely - next March. I know this is a long way off but it is almost full already, so if you are interested, book a place!

But going back to the anxiety - I think hedgehogs can help. We can do things. Much of the anxiety comes from the enormity of the threats we hear about. Threats which are beyond our ability to fix. But hedgehogs - we can make the hole in the fence, we can build a compost heap, a pond, a log pile. We can talk to our neighbours and then - maybe - hedgehogs will return and this can be evidence to encourage those we have frightened to realise there is hope. 

Twitter. Instagram. Spare change. 

(And just because someone will complain - about the daylight hog - this is a photo of hedgehog I rescued from a garden being given a snack before travelling to Little Foxes rescue ... oh, and my son, being reminded of the good there is out there!)