The last great childhood.

I believe I had the last great childhood. This is quite a statement I grant you, but there it is. Now, I know I can not truly claim to have had the last great childhood, but most children I meet and know, are no longer able to run wild in the countryside like we did. I was lucky enough to grow up on a farm. Not isolated, but a sensible distance from most people. We got up in the mornings and went off to explore and play in the woods, hedges, fields, ditches and dare I say it, ponds. We only came back when we were hungry. We did not have mobile phones or electronic toys, we simply played and used the greatest free gift of all, our imagination. It was through this childhood that my passion for natural history was ignited. I collected anything and everything. I had a thirst for knowledge about everything I found and loved reading books on the subject. I reared a variety of injured and orphaned wildlife as pets. It is true that my pets experienced various levels of tolerance from my family. Finding brown rats behind my dressing table will probably stay forever in my Mothers mind. No doubt so will the injured pipistrelle bat that I was successfully nursing back to health- they shared a chance meeting in my wardrobe. The brown hare leverets were loved by all though, until it was discovered they had eaten my Mothers much doted on and prized, Plumbago plant off at the base. It is hard to expect this generation of children to be aware and passionate about our countryside when in today's society we are afraid to let them loose in it. I am no exception. Now married with my own children and still living on a farm, sadly even I do not let them out of my site for long. To truly appreciate our countryside and everything in it, we really need to have had direct contact with it. It's far easier, to loose the things you are not aware even existed in the first place. This is mainly why I set up my Roadshows. I want children to experience just a tiny fragment of what makes up our incredible planet and perhaps they will respect, appreciate and love it in their futures too.


'Hartley' a orphan brown hare leveret I reared and successfully reintroduced way back in the 1970's. Please remember if you do find injured wildlife today, take it to a vet or rescue centre. If you find what you believe to be orphaned wildlife, please leave them alone and seek advice. Their parent might actually not be that far away.