Moonlighting at the Country Living Spring Fair

I’m feeling particularly pleased as I write this because we’ve just put the third issue of Nature’s Home to bed – sending all the final pages to the printers means the hard work is done and we look forward to seeing the fruits of our labours in beautiful, perfectly-printed magazine format! 

It’s been great fun working on this issue and I won’t give too much away, except to say it’s by far my favourite issue of Nature’s Home yet and certainly the best. I think you'll like it too! As ever, do let me know what you think. I've recruited a brilliant new team at Immediate Media to work on the magazine with me, and the RSPB youth magazines, and Dan, Will and everyone else have done us proud as we continue to improve the new magazine.   

Come and see me at the Country Living Spring Fair
I’m also pleased to get everything wrapped because at the end of this week I'll be doing a spot of moonlighting. From Wednesday 19 March to Sunday 23 March, the RSPB will be at the Country Living Spring Fair at the Business Design Centre in London.

You might ask what that has to do with me – well, instead of wandering around the variety off fabulous stands and watching the demonstrations, I’ll be part of the show, as will be my friends and colleagues from the RSPB, Richard Bashford and Ben Andrew. We will be giving talks on Giving Nature a Home in the show's garden and we'll be offering advice on how to make your garden even better for wildlife. I’ll be sharing some of the secrets of how I’ve made my garden into a wildlife haven and passing on the RSPB's excellent advice. We’ve also been talked into giving some demonstrations of hands on activities for the "Getting your hands dirty for nature" talk. We have been promised a glamorous assistant to give us a hand with the latter, so I'm looking forward to that slot!

I'm still busy creating in my garden and just last Sunday I came across three huge logs that someone had dumped at the roadside. I couldn't believe my luck - they were perfect for making a new log pile, so into the boot they went.

The perfect log pile - Get some wood in your garden and the birds will come flocking, as will the bugs, beasties and animals....

I’ll be doing my thing on the Friday and Saturday, but don’t let that put you off. Come along – it’s a great day out. The RSPB talks start on Wednesday though so you have five days tro choose from.

I’m also going to be moonlighting next month at RSPB Members’ Weekend in April. I’ll be leading some bird walks and ID sessions and doing a book signing for my RSPB Pocket Garden Birdwatch book but more about that next week. It’s a good weekend and last year was great for the birds at York University with Arctic tern and Jack snipe topping the bird list.

I hope you enjoy the latest issue of Nature's Home. Please keep your comments coming by e-mailing natureshome@rspb.org.uk