One morning in Suffolk, before this summer’s drought set in, I woke up to a garden strewn with raindrop-spangled silk.

Some of the spiders’ webs were as round as dandelion clocks. Others dipped like  hammocks. Domed or dipped, every web was a densely-woven porch overhanging a dark, round doorway.

I poked gently at one cobweb, with a grass-stalk. If you do that to an orb web, the spider often comes running out to see if her breakfast has arrived. But no hungry beast emerged from this labyrinth. Perhaps she’d fed already, or was sleeping, or she recognised the heavy touch of a human.

Eventually of course, out came the sun and dried up all the rain, and all the thistledown houses disappeared again.

My favourite book character spider is the Hairy Godmother in Spinderella, by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Sebastien Braun. What’s yours?

Don’t forget you could win a copy of the ‘My Little Star’ boardbook, if you can find the spiders drawn by Rosalind Beardshaw in two of my picture books.  See my Spider Hunt Giveaway blogpost.

Today the British charity Butterfly Conservation launches its Big Butterfly Count. All you need to take part is fifteen minutes in your garden. Download an identification chart and find out more here.

As well as butterflies, I’ve been spotting ladybirds today. Back in April, I noticed 7-spots (Coccinella septempunctata)  emerging from among the violets. They do that every spring. And every summer, when the crowds of aphids appear, I wonder where the ladybirds are when I need them.

You can be sure they’re never far away. This morning I was about to tidy up some unsightly dead ox-eye daisies, and there among a carnage of aphids, I spied two generations of 7-spots.

The larvae have a distinctive pattern of two sets of double orange spots along each side.

Needless to say, my flowerbed is still full of dead daisies. They’ll stay undisturbed until all the ladybirds have grown and flown.

By the way, the larvae of the Harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) look similar, but they have a line of orange spots along each side and a square arrangement of four orange tufts in the middle. They also are voracious aphid-eaters. You can find out more about ladybirds on the UK Ladybird Survey website.

 

Otter poop (spraint*) smells like a newly-opened pack of jasmine tea. I discovered this fun fact at the Zoology Live! Festival, held on 23-24^th June to celebrate the reopening of Cambridge University’s Museum of Zoology.

Along with many other people, I’ve missed the Museum since it closed for redevelopment in 2013, so it’s a joy to see it open again on the New Museums Site, off Downing Street.

The iconic Fin Whale still welcomes visitors, drawing every eye upwards. In the entrance hall below, a stunning automaton by one of the creators of the Corpus clock offers a fun reward for cash donations.

The weekend festival had a lot going on, including children’s crafts and story-telling. Representatives of Shepreth Wildlife Park were there, with a host of live insects and reptiles, like this beautiful corn snake.

There were talks (full-length and bite-sized), workshops and urban safaris, and plenty more to keep children and grown-ups alike entertained.

Exploring the collections in the lower galleries I happened to look up and saw giant glowing jellyfish swimming across the ceiling.

The Museum offers events throughout the year, and it has Zoology Clubs for youngsters up to 18 years old.  Do take your kids along. You may not find a corn snake in the courtyard, but even on the most ordinary day, this place is a treasure trove of wonderful things to discover.

Just remember to look up!

* Otter survey info can be found at Cambridgeshire Mammal Group

I was in distinguished company yesterday, with fellow authors, Isabel Thomas, Katie Dale, Pippa Goodhart and Helen Moss. We braved the bitter northerly wind with coats, scarves and blankets, and brought storytime to the glorious maze garden in Balsham, in one of the preliminary events of Linton Children’s Book Festival, coming up this weekend 19-20^th May 2018. (Don’t miss it!)

Isabel took charge of our last minute publicity.

After a quick photo-call, we snuggled up in the mini-marquee with some of our books and lots of delightfully engaged children.

Isabel treated us to a pre-publication reading of her new book, Moth, a brilliant, lyrical account of an example of natural selection and evolution in our times.

Among other stories, Pippa enchanted with her beautiful, fable-like tale, A Bottle of Happiness; Helen intrigued with clever clues in The Mystery of the Green Lady; and Katie caused hilarity with her mum, Elizabeth Dale’s Nothing Can Frighten a Bear – which just shows that Katie’s mastery of rhyme and humour runs in the family.

I read Daddy’s Little Star. It’s always a joy to read to children who love books as much as the Balsham audience clearly did. And they were especially delightful wearing their fox masks (courtesy of and ©FirstPalette, a brilliant site for kids’ craft ideas). I’ve kept one of the masks as a souvenir of a fabulous afternoon.

How scary is a tarantula? My latest storyline stars one of these giant mini-beasts, so I had to do some research.

My spider-loving friend, Sarah, kindly introduced me to her pets. The Mexican Red-Knee is gorgeous, with orange and black tufts like tasselled trousers. But he’s prone to puffing a cloud of irritating hairs at unwelcome visitors, so I left him in peace.

Pablo, the Brazilian Black was happier to make friends and she sat, docile and velvety, in my hands. I could feel her slight weight through each of her pipe-cleaner legs. Occasionally she probed the air with a foot before setting it down again.

I had to count and recount her legs. Oddly, there seemed to be ten. But, no – that short pair at the front are pedipalps, more like arms than legs. Back in her tank she used them to grab a hapless cricket for her lunch.

How scary is a tarantula? Not at all. Unless you’re a mini-beast smaller than she is. Then she’s very scary indeed!

GIVEAWAY: The wonderful Rosalind Beardshaw illustrated six of the picture books I’ve written. If you don’t already have them on your bookshelf, your local library may be able to find them for you. The English language titles are: ‘Daddy’s Little Star’ (or ‘My Little Star’ or ‘Mommy’s Little Star’), ‘A New Home for Little Fox’ (or ‘Daddy’s Little Scout’), ‘Goodnight, Magic Moon’, ‘Night, Light, Sleep Tight’, ‘Little Deer Lost’ and ‘The Best Present’.

Rosalind put in lots of cute mini-beasts, including dragonflies and beetles. I think there are only two spiders among them. Can you spot them?

I’ll send a PRIZE* to the first person who correctly names the two picture books and tells me where these spiders are hiding. Anyone can enter. Just leave a comment on this website.

*The prize is a copy of the toddler-sized My Little Star board-book, now out of print. Good luck!

Cambridgeshire, like the rest of the UK, was in the snowy grip of The Beast from the East on World Book Day, two weeks ago.

My weather-wise rabbit warned me to stay at home, but I had an important engagement to keep. So I ignored him, packed up my Little Fox books and set off on a twenty minute drive to Cottontails Pre-school.

I needn’t have worried; the roads were clear for this intrepid explorer. Also, something fabulous happened on the way – I saw a running fox, gloriously red against the snow. Clearly, I thought, Cottontails must be a very special place if Little Fox comes out to see me go! 

And I was right. Outside, the icicles on Cottontails’ playhouse roof were echoed by a row of ingenious ice sculptures hanging from a line, and inside there were lots of sunny smiles.

There was some marvellous fancy dress to be seen. Here’s the merry band of staff in character:

Cottontails’ children know a lot about animals and birds, and they told me all about Forest School activities, like exploring and making dens. Little Fox would be right at home there.

We had fun with role-play, with our lumbering bears, trotty badgers, hopping bunnies and buzzy bees all finding their way home for a snooze in the end. Later, a stack of paper plates inspired some brilliant drawings of different creatures in their dens and burrows.

Thank you, Cottontails, for a lovely warm welcome on a very chilly World Book Day.

 

This Offer is Now Closed: Story Snug is celebrating International Book Giving Day with a multiple picture book giveaway. A copy of Daddy’s Little Star, signed by both brilliant illustrator Rosalind Beardshaw and by me, is among the books that could soon be winging their way to a new home anywhere in the world.

BE QUICK: to be in with a chance, click the button for your chosen book on the Story Snug site before midnight on 14^th February. Good luck!

The Lost Words is a dictionary of nature words like conker, fern and acorn, but much more than that. It’s also a spell book. It unites Robert Macfarlane’s lyrical, acrostic poems and Jackie Morris’s gorgeous illustrations to name and conjure things in the natural world that, astonishingly, are in danger of being forgotten.

There are three spreads for each entry; the first holds a ghost of the word with its letters hidden in a scatter of alphabet; the second has a picture and a spell of the word; and the third is a glorious illustration of the named thing securely in its natural environment.

Every school and household should have a copy of The Lost Words. Failing that, a Crowdfunder appeal is hoping to deliver a copy to every primary school in Scotland. The project is open for donations until 9^th February.

Jackie Morris is putting fabulous, unique pieces of her artwork up for auction to support the appeal. Pop over to her blog for details. I bid for a piece earlier, and I’m now the proud owner of a trio of labyrinths and the name of the Goldfinch captured in gold.

The Lost Words is available from the usual outlets. A proportion of the profits will go to the charity Action for Conservation. #TheLostWords

10^th February update: Many congratulations to The Lost Words Crowdfunder campaign on reaching its target and securing a copy of this marvellous nature book for every school in Scotland. You can read more about the book and the campaign, on the Guardian website.

 

One of the grey squirrels in my garden is black. He’s very cute, and so unusual that people often think he must be a different species, like a red squirrel.

In fact, the black fur is due to a genetic mutation, first seen in Britain in Bedfordshire in 1912. The mutated gene has been spreading through the grey squirrel population since then, so we are seeing more and more black-furred, melanistic individuals like mine.

He’s very nervous and hard to photograph, but I like this snap. It gives us a glimpse of his rich brown tummy.

Genes for colour variants can be linked to other traits, like blue eyes and deafness in white cats. Scientists wonder whether melanism in squirrels might be linked to higher testosterone and so to more aggressive behaviour. For what it’s worth, my black squirrel is pretty shy. His grey relations beat him to the bird-feeder every time!