I love the Wildlife Trusts.  They are a grassroots movement of people from all sorts of backgrounds and they are on a mission:  to restore a third of the UK’s land and seas for nature by 2030.

Each Wildlife Trust is an independent charity.  Those involved (in whatever way) want to make a difference to wildlife, to nature, to our climate. 

There are now 46 Trusts throughout the UK, from Alderney Wildlife Trust in the Channel Islands to the Scottish Wildlife Trust, from South and West Wales to Suffolk, from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly to Northumberland.  So wherever you are, or wherever the nature lover in your life is, there should be a Wildlife Trust in their area you can tap into and get involved with.

The Wildlife Trusts together have over 900,000 members.  There are 600 Trustees, over 32,500 volunteers and 2,500 staff.  That’s a lot of people who care about nature and who want to make a positive difference.  If we all work together and we are committed to making life better for nature and wildlife – and for people, too – we can achieve much.

Members are helping their Trust to look after wildlife and the natural places in their area, and they receive a welcome back, regular magazines and lots of information. It’s the sort of thing where you can get as involved as you want; if you are really manic with life, you can at least know that your membership is helping your Trust continue with its vital work.   

Membership benefits

Because each Trust is an independent charity, the memberships will vary on cost (most are about £3 a month) but generally they include a welcome pack of goodies, regular magazines full of news and features, access to beautiful nature reserves, talks, walks and events – these are a great way to meet fellow wildlife lovers who care about the natural world – and chances to campaign for wildlife.

Many Wildlife Trusts have half price membership offers (or similar) in January 2025, (most to new members only)!

So this could be a great opportunity to treat yourself or a loved one to a reduced price membership, be it half price or anything else for that matter, and to support wildlife at the same time!

For example:

Devon Wildlife Trust

Durham Wildlife Trust

Surrey Wildlife Trust

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust

Radnorshire Wildlife Trust

Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust

Somerset Wildlife Trust

Shropshire Wildlife Trust

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust

Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust

Kent Wildlife Trust

Northumberland Wildlife Trust

Manx Wildlife Trust

Ulster Wildlife Trust

Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside Wildlife Trust

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust

North Wales Wildlife Trust

Cheshire Wildlife Trust

Cornwall Wildlife Trust

Dorset Wildlife Trust

This is not an exhaustive list so click on this link here to find your local Wildlife Trust if it isn't listed above! 

Give a gift membership to a Wildlife Trust here

Take Action and Support your Local Wildlife Trust

Take a look at your local Wildlife Trust, you can find yours here – and sign up.  It’s a great way to show your support for nature and to help Wildlife Trusts reach the 30x30 target - that's 30% of land and sea protected by 2030. 

The Wildlife Trusts are aiming to put nature in recovery, making more space for it and connecting habitats on a large scale so that wildlife can pass safely through to new territories.  The Trusts want to restore nature so that ecosystems can function again - the UK natural world is very much depleted now.   

The Trusts are also hoping to inspire us all to act for nature and rewild our neighbourhoods, working with our communities.  I am a member of a couple of Wildlife Trusts and love to receive news of how I can get involved and make a difference - and also to see success stories.  Together we can all drive change and actually help nature help us - nature is vital for our wellbeing. 

So give a gift membership to a Wildlife Trust and you'll be giving a gift that helps nature, wildlife and people and is a win-win for nature lovers all round! 

When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is to make myself some Twinnings Earl Grey Tea.   I've got a fine bone china mug I love to drink it from (so pretty, from Dunoon) - a friend and I were talking about our morning Twinnings tea and we both agreed you have to drink it out of a fine bone china mug!

Twinnings are known for their teas, and they have an incredible range of flavours to choose from.  They've got teas to see you through the day, from English Breakfast to your afternoon tea, and then something to see you off to sleep in the evening zzzzz

They've also got Wellbeing teas, for sleep, unwind, digestive health, feel good, good energy, pause and unwind and more.  

And they've got Matcha tea - and in case you haven't tried that before, they've got a Matcha Starter Kit  with everything you need to start making delicious Matcha beverages!  

There's a Twinnings Matcha Starter Kit Gift Box for £28.00

And as you can imagine, they've got lots of biscuits & confectionary, fudge, marmelades and prseserves, and plenty of tableware - mugs, KeekpCups and tea accessories. 

They've also got gift hampers, Twinnings Collection Selection Boxes, Christmas confectionery, Christmas boxed gift sets and Christmas Advent calendars. 

This is the Monty Bojangles Truffle Collection Tube - yummy!
£8.49

This is the Peace on Earth Gift Box for £23.00

Their ranges give you a great chance to try out different teas, so they're great for anyone who loves trying different tastes, and they've even got a Tea Masterclass in their flagship store in the Strand in London,  so you can buy a loved one a voucher for that (£45.00).   

Visit Twinnings here

Whipsnade Zoo had a very important arrival back on the 2nd October this year.  

The world welcomed little Khulu, a southern white rhino calf.   His mum is called Fahari, and both rhinos are doing well! 

Khulu is loving his time outside, especially having a good wallow...

Khulu has just started to venture out of his cosy den, which is indoors - but he's delighted to have discovered the muddy wallows in the paddock, and he's taken the opportunity to get down and dirty there!  He's got 21 acres to explore, so no doubt he'll find more wallows to enjoy! 

Khulu is a Zulu word.  It means both small and great or significant - and Khulu is a very significant rhino indeed!   There are just 17,500 southern white rhinos left in the wild, so if we take the phrase of the astronaut Neil Armstrong and alter it a bit, you could say this is one step for man, one giant leap for mankind, we could change it slightly to one step for Khulu, one giant leap for southern white rhinos. Every rhino matters! 

Khulu will be joining the European breeding programme, and this is important because it helps create agenetically diverse and healthy back up population.  

Find out more about the rhinos at Whipsnade here.  

There's plenty going on at Whispnade this Christmas, by the way, from 23rd November to 6th January,  including the opportunity to Meet Santa, and weekly walks with different themes from the 7th November to the 19th December.  And of course, there are all the animals to see!!  And if you're looking for a gift for an animal lover, there are gift experiences, tickets to buy so your loved ones can visit, gift memberships of course, and the online shop!  

You could also donate a Festive Dinner to the animals, from £5.00 - it depends if you want to go for a starter, a main course or a dessert - or go for all three!  Find out more here. 

Head off to Whipsnade Zoo's website here.

Did you see the period drama, Wolf Hall, on Sunday evening?

The period drama shows the rise of Thomas Cromwell (remember King Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries?), and Mark Rylance leads the adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s tales from Tudor history.  

One of the incredible things about the series – indeed of any period drama – is where it was filmed.   Both English Heritage and the National Trust have a wonderful range of properties you can visit, and did you know that many of them have featured in film and television series over the years?

One of the things I love about BBC period dramas is their attention to detail.  I think they do their research really well to make everything as believable as possible.  How they get the filming done without the sound of aircraft going overhead, I will never know.  But the level of detail they achieve is quite extraordinary and for me, it adds to a really good drama. 

This is Tilbury Fort in Essex now in the care of English Heritage.
It's got its own moat and bridge along with a run of Georgian style terrace houses,
which are known as the officers' quarters.

The historic properties certainly add to the atmosphere, like an orchestra giving a performance extra power and weight,   And for film buffs and those of us who love a good TV series, as you stroll through parkland you’ve seen in a dramatic episode, or enter a long pictured gallery which has been the site of a very tense scene, you can almost hear the characters voices and words.

For instance, the Wolf Hall 2015 series featured Brandford-on-Avon Tithe Barn and Dover Castle; both are under the care of English Heritage.

This is Great Chalfield Manor and Garden in Wiltshire,
one of the settings for Wolf Hall.

Downton Abbey, Anna Karenina, Jane Austen novels, Rebecca, Far from the Maddening Crowd, Belgravia, Games of Thrones, Dracula Untold, Harry Potter, The Secret Garden, Enola Holmes,  Death and Nightingales, Hampstead, Swallows and Amazons, Malificent, Snow White and The Huntsman, Cinderella, Napoleon – they’ve all featured scenes or longer at various National Trust properties – you can see which ones are where here. Poldark had lots of the coast and countryside areas in it.  And let’s not forget Bridgerton, The Pursuit of Love, Doctor Who and The Unlikely Pilgrimage.

Scenes from Bridgerton were filmed at Osterley Park and House, West London

The income from the location fee goes back into caring for these wonderful properties, which is great news!

Take a look at the National Trust properties, some of which have appeared in films and on TV!

And here are the English Heritage ones!

A gift membership to either could make a lovely membership for someone who enjoys films and dramas.

English Heritage give us an idea of what it’s like to have films and TV shows on location with them – some of the more unusual requests they’ve received was firstly to bring in a tortoise and secondly to bring 35 horses.  (That last one must have given them some good manure for the gardens.)

The top priority is to protect both fabric and collections and lighting equipment can give challenges because it can affect the conditions of a room.  As you’re probably aware, some pieces in any collection will demand specific conditions such as the right temperature or amount of light.  English Heritage work closely with production teams so that any potential risk can be assessed in advance and risks minimised.  We've got to look after our heritage!