Hey, Babe, Take A Walk On The Wild Side

Image from www.morguefile.com

Shhh, don't tell the kids. I've ordered a DVD of Microcosmos for my niece and nephew to watch this Christmas. I was as wide-eyed as a child by this French film when I saw it at the cinema years ago. Directed by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou, it's a natural history docu-drama with magnificent creepy crawlies that fill the screen. Ladybirds dodge raindrops, dung beetles heft balls the size of houses and hermaphrodite slugs unite in sensual, slo-mo, gloopy glory.

My nephew was pleased with a book of fabulous insect photographs I gave him. I  thought the microscopic detail of articulated appendages, mandibles like fork-lift trucks and eyes like solar panels might appeal, and they did, but he's not too keen on arachnids. His mum reckons it's just a phase - an innate fear that protects instinctively - some spiders are poisonous. Same with my dog and snakes. If she hears a harmless grass snake rustle she tiptoes very cautiously towards it, and I'm pretty certain she's never encountered any other snake species.

I played in their inner-city garden with the five year old and the three year old at the weekend. They weren't keen on my den idea because of the spiders, but they screamed with delight for about an hour just messing about with water, which was their idea. Project Wild Thing is a film showing at cinemas nationwide at the moment. It's a documentary exploring the idea that an important solution to 'Nature Deficit Disorder' is to encourage kids to be more free-range. I cherish every little childish notion of nature, such as 'We saw a bat Jo!' Embellished with 'It had lost its mummy.'