Andrew Foster's Letter

To Ned, my latest grandchild,

Yesterday I held you as you slept. Your perfection amazes me and I cannot help but worry about what your future will be; certainly so different than my life has been for sure.
I have seen so many changes over the last 70 years or so. Change, I know, is part of life, but now changes come faster and are more dramatic. I find it hard to keep up with them.
I am a keen gardener and so have become aware that plants are just as confused as me; many now flower and fruit at times of year that would never have happened before.
Animals that were common have disappeared from our gardens. Butterflies are a rarity, hedgehogs are never seen, frogs likewise. There has been no frogspawn in our pond in the last two years so will you, Ned, ever see a frog, a hedgehog?
It all happens so quickly. A blink of an eye.
I can only hope that Governments and Industry will at last start to do something, not just talk about it.
But if I wish for one thing it is that you can have a full and happy life in safety, surrounded by all the wonderful diversity that I have been able to enjoy.