All the fine plans ...

if you want to make god laugh, tell her your plans!!

Sunday the 12th July was the last day of an enormously busy stretch, mostly filled with taking photographs of choirs, and other musicians, for the Oxford Festival of the Arts, and various Oxford colleges. In fact that day was my chance to show off, as I got to talk at the festival about the iconography of hedgehogs! A new talk for me, and I did enjoy myself.

three different Oxford related hedgehogs - can you identify them?

Twelve years back I wrote a book all about this subject - and since then there has been a steady flood of further examples of hedgehogs in art, literature, poetry - and pretty much every other aspect of life that you can imagine.

still available from all good bookshops!

So much so, I could probably add another 20,000 words to the original book!

That behind me, I had a visit planned to my mother, Anne, up near Birkenhead. I had not seen her since March, and was really looking forward to feeding her loads of lovely food - and just sitting with her, reading, doing crosswords, and solving various problems of the world.

But, I arrived Monday at 1740, and she looked dreadful. Dialled 111 before bags were put away, and we were in A&E by 1830 with a 7.5 hour wait ahead of us. Luckily the nursing team recognised something was definitely in need of attention and we were seen around 2230 - and then sent home.

Thinking the crisis had passed, I stayed with her until Thursday before heading home to meet Matt Hobs, and see his standup show, Badgers vs Hedgehogs! It was very good - and has give me plenty to think about in the way I present my material!

Then Sunday morning - a neighbour, Queen (yes, her name, not a title!), Anne has an amazing collection of neighbours, got in touch - she had called an ambulance, so worried was she by how Anne was looking. So, back up the M6 I went and was there until Saturday when Anne demanded that I go to If Not Now, When - the rewilding conference organised at Derek Gow’s place … I was booked in as a speaker. That was a 6.5 hour drive I would rather not repeat! And I will write about the event soon. But for now, back to Anne.

I could not open Anne’s window at the hospital enough to pay my rent to these two beauties … but this still lingered, in hope!

The NHS have been wonderful - though sometimes I needed a little bribery (a twix can do wonders to ease path!) and Anne is in good spirits, awaiting an assessment and maybe surgery. Though the fact that she has been in for over a week now and NOT had a visit from the relevant surgical team … who have suggested she goes home and comes back as an outpatient … does colour the picture somewhat …

So - the reason I have written this … I had been feeling guilty about not writing an update! I could have written something about the latest findings from ecological research into hedgehogs and traffic (that one will come soon!) I could have written in outrage about the abuse that led to the death of a hedgehog, painted by some cretins. I could have (should have?) reminded you all to make sure you have a shallow dish of water available for wildlife wherever you have the chance to put one.

But realised, that would be hiding the reality - so much of what we put out online creates a very rosy picture of life, leaving aside the anxiety that bubbles away in the real world. I am so worried for my mother, she is in a lot of pain.

We met for the first time the day before her 60th birthday (I was adopted and this is a long story I have told before - in fact, here is a video of me talking about our first meeting). I am about to turn 60 - I will be the age that she was when we met … we have not had enough time. So … please forgive sporadic posts for the foreseeable future, I am still around, still accumulating hedgehog-lore!!