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You may remember back in the summer I told you about a children’s story I was writing and at that point testing. Well, it’s only taken a year of my life, but we have finally got something you can buy and I am very proud.

“The Perfect Pond” is a book full of native wildlife characters and excitement. It tells the adventures of a great crested newt who has to move ponds to find a lady-friend. At the back of the book there is some information and discussion points to help you bring out the important messages with the children in your life. And in the “Downloads” section of the “Learning Zone” on our website there are some worksheets you can do with them about food-chains and life cycles which link into the story. You’ll find some other cool stuff to do there to.

We have been able to fund the printing of some copies, which the education team will use on their sessions to teach children about the threats that amphibians are under and what they can do about it. We have also self-published a bigger version which we are now selling in our online shop. All profits go to the amazing work Froglife do to conserve our native species and connect people to nature.

Also some of the amazing artwork by Vanessa Barber has been used in this year’s Christmas cards (I came up with the slogans, I hope you like them!)

We would love to hear what you think of the book. Please email us info@froglife.org, message us at facebook.com/froglife or tweet us @froglifers

This is a new term for my creative writing class and one of the challenges set by my lecturer was to write a complete love story in 200 words. I really enjoy the challenge of packing a whole story into a short space and so decided to write one about a tree (obviously, when someone says write about love, I write about nature!) I use to take young people on the Green Pathways project to this tree to climb. The tree has been damaged and is not safe to go near now, in case it drops limbs. I was really sad about this and decided to collect some acorns to send to friends for Christmas and encourage them to plant them with a story. Unfortunately, the tree did not produce many acorns and I have only managed to find seven that were good enough to plant so I planted them at home. I hope these will grow and I will prolong the life of this beautiful tree through its seedlings.

Life Eternal

The tree knew love from its first moment of life. An acorn carefully placed in a warm spot, protected from hungry jays with a hollow log. The lovers returned often to where he first proposed, to ensure the tree flourished as well as their children. Its strength permeated their relationship and their vitality brought forth leaves and flowers. In their silver twilight she came to pray, and then to cry through the dark. Sometimes the offspring came again and there was energy in the sunny clearing.

Then it was forgotten.

Bees investigated, kestrels surveyed, and blue tits nested. Leaves grew and fell.

A woman led children to the clearing and they brought happiness and noise. They climbed the strong limbs and encouraged their friends. Many left with unfamiliar achievement in their heart. The woman loved the tree for its beauty and for what it bestowed. The tree seemed invincible.

But thoughtless fires by partying youths broke the skin, and the tree struggled. No more children came.

The woman still loved the tree though and returned to collect seeds. She planted them in a warm spot with her lover and protected them from hungry jays.

My name is Natalia, and I spent the last week doing work experience at Froglife. This amazing opportunity allowed me to learn lots of interesting stuff about amphibians and reptiles. It was truly an adventure that taught me many things and allowed me to develop my skills.

Monday began with a clear introduction to the charity, and the team. I learnt about what Froglife does exactly, how it is run and what are the different roles within the charity. After the introduction I started doing a research about all of the different species of amphibians and reptiles. I found out about their life cycles, characteristics, habitats, breeding and unique habits that all of them have. When I finally got familiar with the different species, I began working on a Froglife Diary for their online shop. This included matching different photos of species with months, and writing very interesting facts about these animals. I was positively surprised about this day as I started developing great interest in this area, due to all of the research and learning about different species of reptiles and amphibians. It also made me realise how important they were and how important it is to protect them.

Tuesday was a day at the office on which I had to identify a national supermarket called Waitrose in local areas of the ponds and reserves. Waitrose is currently running a project called ‘’Community Matters’’. At the end of shopping at their local branch, customers are gives a token to place in a box to donate to a different cause. The more tokens the charity gets, the bigger the donation. Since its launch in 2008, the scheme has donated £14 million to local charities chosen by the customers. My job was to identify the different branches around the areas where the ponds are, and find out their details and contact information, to allow Froglife to contact Waitrose for a possibility to place the box with tokens for their charity. This allows the customers to donate to Froglife and improve the ponds in their local area. This allowed me to understand more about how the charity works with different brands and how the projects are being funded.

Wednesday was a very adventurous day, which gave me the opportunity to go out to Waterworks Nature Reserve to survey the area. On this day, I have learnt multiple things about the species and their lives. First of all, it was a chance for me to get familiar with the different habitats in which the species live, and what exactly do they look like in real life and how they are used by the animals. Nevertheless, I also learnt how to identify different species and how to tell the difference between a male and a female. Luckily, I got to practise this skill on Smooth Newts and identify their features as we saw a couple of them at the Nature Reserve. Both males and females have greenish-brown upperparts, with a whitish belly and cheeks and an orange streak on the belly, which is more pronounced in males. The body is covered in black spots, which are larger and more obvious in males than females. Females are often more dull in colour and patterning than males.

I also got to learn more about frogs and see them in their own natural habitats. I learnt the difference between a Pool Frog and Common Frog. Both of these species are fairly similar however the Pool Frog that I was lucky to see is easier to identify as they often have a light yellow stripe at the back. Whereas Common Frogs usually have dark patches behind their eyes and blotches of dark striping on the back legs. I was also incredibly lucky to see a Grass Snake in its habitat. This day was full of adventures and learning, and gave me the opportunity to see the species that I have previously researched, in their natural habitats. I also learnt about surveying and its importance.

After coming back to the office, I wrote a blog post about different species of amphibians and reptiles that live in the rainforest, linking back to a video that I have made to win the work experience. This allowed me to develop further understanding about the rainforest and how the species and habitats are different from those that we can find in the UK. Many of the species living in the rainforest are under threat due to climate change, deforestation, as well as illegal pet trade. This raised my awareness and gave me a chance to share my experiences and research, by writing a blog post about the importance of rainforest conservation for the Froglife website.

Friday was a day for me to say goodbye to the incredible team that I worked with, and finish off any outstanding work from the week. Overall I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity that was given to me. I got to learn a lot about amphibians and reptiles and developed a great interest which got me thinking about what I want to do in the future. I also developed many new skills, met a lot of positive people, and was happy about the fact that it gave me the chance to work at the office and see the ‘back’ side of things, as well as go out to natural habitats and work with the animals.

I am very fortunate to be the CEO of an amazing charity called Froglife. The reason why I say that I am fortunate and that this is an amazing charity is that I work with a bunch of incredibly enthusiastic, intelligent and fun people who are passionate about conserving the UKs amphibian and reptile species and the habitats that they rely on. Froglife is distinctive within the wildlife conservation sector in that it uses unique techniques for engaging people into wildlife conservation. We are particularly keen to reach out to those communities who for a wide range of reasons are often missing out on enjoying the natural world.

Through providing engaging activities we can get lots of people out appreciating nature whilst also doing something positive to help conserve it. Our work is very much ‘on the ground’ creating and restoring vital wildlife sites. Over the past four years Froglife has the astonishing record of improving 713 wildlife sites, this has been achieved with the help of 2,844 volunteers.

However we appreciate that not everyone wants to or can get involved in such physical activities and we therefore also draw heavily on the creative arts to engage and involve people. Our community engagement programme includes creating murals in unattractive under-passes or on drab buildings; Swimming with Dragons converts pools into ponds; Life under the Surface exhibitions created by school children provide people with the opportunity to explore the inside of a pond whilst Mapestry is a collection of community created tapestries depicting heritage items in a specific area. Schools can become a Froglife Leapfrog School this provides the children with the opportunity to explore wild areas and wildlife without leaving their school grounds.

The importance to people’s health and mental wellbeing of being outdoors and working with nature is well documented and as a charity we want to ensure that we create more high quality green spaces for all of society to enjoy. To do that it is important for us to have tangible evidence of the value that the natural world can bring. Through working with Professor Graham Scott and colleagues from the Faculty of Education and The Faculty of Science and Engineering at Hull University we will be in a much stronger position to provide the evidence that is needed of the value of the natural world to wildlife and people.

For more information about our work and impact visit http://www.froglife.org/learning-zone/