Cardinal beetle

I've just checked on last year's blip and can't believe that Pete and I were out admiring hordes of butterflies, hoverflies and beetles. Today we took the dogs up to Southey Wood, and walked around in several layers of clothing under a sullen grey sky - and the number of flying or crawling insects could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Not a single butterfly to be seen!! As far as invertebrates were concerned it could have been early March, though the cow parsley and hawthorn blossom told another story.

The highlight of our trip was finding two separate colonies of lady's mantle Alchemilla filicaulis ssp vestita in the grassland bordering the main ride. This little plant is very rare in our part of the world, with only three locations around Peterborough. It seems to have enjoyed the wet spring, and was flowering merrily. We also found a patch of sanicle Sanicula europaea, another very local species, and a natural hybrid of primrose and cowslip, the original progenitor of the garden polyanthus! I also spotted this single cardinal beetle Pyrochroa serraticornis sitting on a ramsons flower.

My second Desert Island Disc track, Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin, could be considered a bit of a cliche, but holds very special associations for me. I was fourteen when I had my first serious boyfriend (I was an early developer!). We were together for two years, and although eventually we parted, I have a great deal to thank him for. I gained a lot of freedom and maturity during that time, and we went off on many adventures, out into the countryside where he taught me how to fish, and also to various parts of London, including a very eye-opening visit to Soho!

He was the youngest of three (by a long way) and his musical tastes were influenced by his elder brother. For the first time I was introduced to the sort of music that didn't often turn up on Top of the Pops. Quite early on in our relationship I was presented with a ticket to see Led Zeppelin live at Earl's Court. Luckily my Mum let me go - and the experience was mind-blowing. The crowds, the sweet scent of marijuana , the light show and the amazing music are still fresh in my mind - and I still remember my ears ringing for the next day or so. The live performance of Stairway to Heaven was perhaps the most memorable part of the experience, perhaps because this was one of the few tracks I'd heard beforehand.

That night set the scene for the next few years, and I made many more visits to Earl's Court and the Hammersmith Odeon, seeing a range of bands and artusts including Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Peter Gabriel. I still remember being very cross with my Mum for not letting me go to the Reading Festival with him (though I understand why now!) . My two eldest sons have continued the pattern and have been to the Leeds Festival many times, as well as various other gigs around the country. Sometimes I feel the urge to join them, but I'm not sure it would be the same now!