How Will I Keep Track of 2027?
You might be wondering how you are going to keep track of 2027 - 2026 has hardly been easy on us - growing evidence of ecological and climate breakdown with a sprinkling of authoritarianism seasoned off with rising misogyny, water, heat, and racism.
There is, of course, a chance to shout at me in THIS version of the update!
Well, I have an answer to that problem - the British Hedgehog Preservation Society Calendar is now up for grabs. For just £6.95 you can keep a track of the important things in life - like birthdays, the date to put foil on your windows or sandbags in front of your doors, and your (Hedgehog)street party!
Working with the publishers Graffeg, with whom I have now written books on hedgehogs (of course), beavers, water voles, and bats BHPS have pulled together a gorgeous bunch of photos of everyone’s favourite animal (I remain to be convinced as to the accuracy of the polling in the banknote scandal which had buff-tail bumblebees and ban owls ahead of the hedgehog in the vote … I reckon it was just down to them being earlier in the alphabet …)
If that was not enough excitement … I met the amazing Siski Kalla recently, and she has beautifully illustrated a wonderful book for young people, The Old Words, written by Caroline Mellor. It is being published next week but I have a copy already and can tell you without doubt, it is very good.
Next up in our attempt to avert collapse - remember those two amazing young people - Eva and Emily? The ones who not only bred and then released 250 harvest mice, but then set up Wild Pets? Well, they could do with a bit of help …
Wild Pets has already been backed by small grants from Devon Environment Foundation, NatureSave Trust, Mid Devon District Council and Wild About Devon. But they need to raise a lot more money to complete the plans for year one. Yes, they did launch the project without having all the funds!
The money will pay for:
- 20 mouse breeding kits (2 tanks, 2 mice, food & bedding for six months)
- Supporting the Wild Kids and their families, including our animal husbandry team and a family liaison person
- Campaign costs, including our beautiful website and social media efforts
Here is the link to the fundraiser.
And finally - I went looking for fly agaric in some woods not too far from me. Along with shooting stars, northern lights, wisteria blossom, murmurating starlings, frog spawn, dawn choruses, golden leaves, the fungi season is one of my favourite times of the year. That list was not very chronological, sorry.
Most years there is a gorgeous outburst of these amazing fruiting bodies, but this year, I am sure due to the extreme heat, I found none. But, we did find a few other gorgeous reminders of the millions of miles of mycelia that are connecting everything, beneath the surface. And the light - autumnal gold - helping create fairytales.
Pop over to the Substack version to have a look.
I will be back soon with a reminder of a very important way you can help hedgehogs …