16 October 2020
To insomniacs and radio listeners of the land: I really enjoyed listening to these for the last two sleepless nights. I mean, eels, wtf? I won’t put any spoilers here but they are incredible. Same for octopuses: they seem to be everywhere these days, but still fascinating! The list goes on, there are nearly 100, 30 minute programmes on plants and animals.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05w99gb/episodes/player
Then I got through Fern (Some Victorians suffered from “Pteridomania” and were avid Fern collectors), Narwhal and Pigeon last night. This time night wakefulness came in the form of granddaughter having a nightmare she was being eaten by a wolf, at 4am. She went straight back to sleep while I spent the next hour listening to more of these. I’m not sure I got any proper sleep after that, been fully awake since 5:30, as I could hear my son moving around the house getting ready for work.
Recently almost every single night something has conspired to wake me up: the cat jumping on bedroom door, trying to get in, demanding food at 5am (most nights she restrains herself and waits until a more reasonable hour), or husband ruffling, or son getting up a 5am to go to work, or as mentioned above, granddaughter… And then sometimes it’s just hormones or worry and PING! I’m wide awake in the middle of the night. So, I’m thankful for these thoroughly fascinating series!