Just in case you had forgotten about it - Covid is still around - so if you have a sudden heavy cold and are questioning visiting a vulnerable friend or relative ... test!! Our household has had a busy week or so - what with my book launch, easter, my son's 18th - and now ... the lurgy. My wife and myself are emerging - but poor Pip is just starting his journey .... while trying to prepare for A levels ....
Has anyone got going with the art competition yet? Just a reminder - the BHPS is looking for a poster to advertise Hedgehog Awareness Week ...
While I have been largely on the sofa I have been catching up on some reading - while writing I had been focussed on just what I was writing about but now I have been able to broaden my horizons ... and what lovely books there are out there.
First was Nick Acheson's The Meaning of Geese - a brilliant insight into an obsessive passion of these story-laden birds. Then - very late to the party - the magnificent On Gallows Down by Nicola Chester - I thought this a beautiful and gently furious memoir of rural life.
On the table in front of my is Caspar Henderson's A Book of Noises - I have known Caspar for best part of 30 years, and I cannot wait to get into this ... I worry if I get fully better too soon I will lose my excuse to sit and read!!
The picture here is a clip from Chris Packham's newsletter - I recommend you sign up! If you thought he was busy - wait until you read more of what he gets up to ... I do not understand how any one person can be quite so consistently and brilliantly productive. He was kind enough to give a plug to my new book - Cull of the Wild - and also Chantal Lyons first book, Groundbreakers - all about her love or wild boar (I have not read this yet, but from what I have heard, it is brilliant).
Ah - if you go to Bloomsbury - for my book - and use the code COTW20 - you get 20% off - I have used links to Amazon purely for ease - please try and buy from local bookshops - they are such vital parts of our community.
This is where my grumpiness with change.org is amplified - as I would LOVE to hear what you were reading - what you recommend for others who love the natural world? We could have built quite a list beneath the post if we were allowed ...
Share your favourite reads with me on Twitter or Instagram ... I did my first TikTok post ... no make up tips ... and not sure I have the right style ... but I have to try and share the word!!
Finally - if you would like to help Team Hedgehog on their hike for hedgehogs ... you can donate here.
Finally finally ... don't forget the Hedgehog Highways Facebook Group - it is not the perfect replacement for the conversations we used to have under these posts, but it is worth joining in just to have some friendly folk with whom to share experiences and ask questions ... as ever - this only works as well as it does thanks to Rose and Jacqueline who give their time to moderate out the idiots!!