My walk along Hadrian's Wall with my son and Godson last week was a fantastic way to clear my head and see some wildlife. The spin-off benefit was that I immersed myself in the life of Roman Britain so much so that I now feel that I am a scholar of Hadrian himself.
We spent the weekend recovering at our hut on the Northumberland coast watching the gannets and terns crash into the sea with the resident barn owl hunting over the dunes. It is no wonder that Metro Radio proclaims the north-east of England "the greatest place in Earth".
And quite a lot seems to have happened in my week away. My football team won the FA Cup, the England cricket team won one match and are trying to lose another. The new Government's legislative agenda was outlined in the Queen's Speech. Although there were no bills directly affecting nature, we will obviously take a keen interest in the constitutional reform package (affecting the EU, UK and England) and measures relating to Enterprise, Energy, HS2 and Housing. On top of all of this, BBC Springwatch at RSPB Minsmere seems to be as popular as ever and most importantly 179,000 people have now joined our Defence of the EU Nature Directives campaign. I think the Commission will hear a loud and clear message from the citizens of Europe that the Directives are working: they good for wildlife, good for business and good for people so they should not be unpicked.
If you have yet to join our campaign you can do so here.
So it was a good week off. I decided to stay an extra day to pop into our Newcastle office to say hello to the team before meeting Mike Pratt, Chief Executive of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust. We had a quick walk round their Hauxley reserve, which is getting an exciting face-lift, and talked about his vision for Druridge Bay and the rest of Northumberland. We wondered how this would fit into the new Government's ambition for a 25 year plan to recover nature. It's very exciting stuff and we'll do what we can to support Mike's vision to make sure "the greatest place on Earth" gets even better for people and wildlife.