Sunday 11:30 am - 12:00 pm
Where: Events Marquee
My Garden and Other Animals’, charts Mike’s year-long transformation of an overgrown and neglected garden into a wildlife haven for native species.
After a decade living in central Bristol, Mike, swapped the urban rat race for a slower pace of life in Chew Stoke with his partner, artist and illustrator Christina Holvey. The pair took a chance on a modest yet run-down home just a stone’s throw from the beautiful Chew Valley Lake, after being won-over by the potential of its 90-foot garden which led down to a wooded bank with a small brook at its base.
Through the changing seasons of the following 12-months, Mike and Christina painstakingly brought the garden to life, creating a patchwork of wildlife havens in their own special corner of Somerset. Now the couple regularly encounter a host of native species in their own mini nature-reserve, from newts, frogs, dragonflies and other small creatures, to mammals such as wood mice, bank voles, hedgehogs, badgers, foxes and even, once, an otter in the brook. A family of soprano pipistrelle bats has even made the couple’s garage their home.
Mike will be signing his book “My garden and other animals” between 2.00 and 3.00 on the Swarovski stand in the optics marquee (OM6).
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