Margaret Redfern

Richard Robinson Askew

Most of us have noticed galls as bizarre and often colourful distortions of plant growth, and wondered what goes on inside them. The drama enacted within a single gall may involve many species of insects and mites. Their interrelationships are intricate and their identification has been challenging. The communities of insects and mites associated with galls of certain plants, when unravelled by specialists, have proved to be of great ecological interest. This book will make galls accessible to a wider audience. It introduces the wonderfully complex communities associated with galls, and provides keys for identification of the gall former, and many other occupants, including predators and parasites. To make this task manageable the authors have concentrated on galls associated with selected plant species, and have presented a food web to illustrate the relationships among the animals associated with each type of gall. Much remains to be discovered about these and other galls and their inhabitants. For the first time, this book brings that exploration within the scope on interested naturalists and students. Galls are often abundant and readily available systems for the study of ecology. Investigations undertaken at home or in schools and universities may help to advance our knowledge of these microcosms, and of the ecological interactions that they illustrate so compactly.

Plant Galls

Peter Shirley

Michael Bloxham

Text by Margaret Redfern and Peter Shirley: Illustrations by Michael Bloxham

A Guide to Plant Galls in Britain

B. M. Spooner

Sue Hockland

Keith Murray Harris

British Plant Galls

However, the insect cycles and gall structures are amazing examples of the complexity of nature.

Death and Loss, are two emotions that painfully remain in our minds and hearts, seemingly forever. The personal sharing of my mothers death reaches through the gentle, loving concepts within Alices story with a hint of what is to come within the title. What greater source of peace can be offered, especially to children, but also to adults, to visualize little Alice as being sought and brought to heaven by the bedraggled little messenger in returning to the Heavenly Father and stands before Him with Alice. Earning her wings and halo leaves room for visualizing preparations for Alices appointed and loving task by the Heavenly Father to bring her mothers love into the Christmas Crib scene. What greater gift can be offered to children to lead them through the inspiration of this beautiful story, to offer their own gift of love through the depth of their loss. Such a loving and generous gift will be memorialized forever from the beginning of this Christmas story and into the ending.

Christmas Crib Angel

'Child,' Nene said out of darkness, out of silence, 'I want you to go to your grandfather's country. I want you to find him.' When her beloved grandmother dies, Sophia is to be sent back to her father's tribe - which may be a death sentence. As the possessor of skills which no other girl has, Sophia determines to make her own fate and to fulfil her grandmother's wish. In the dark of night she creeps from the summer dwelling intent on finding her way to England in search of Will the Storyteller - the man Nene fell in love with years before, the man Nene sees in Sophia's eyes. Unbeknownst to her, the key to her success is a Welshman who would protect her with his life but doesn't even know her name...

The Storyteller's Granddaughter

Looking for one hundred shoes is no easy job! Thaddeus tries his best to hide from his mother's impatient voice as she reminds him that it is shoe hunting day. Being a centipede with one hundred legs, he is found as flat as he can be in his favorite hiding place, under a rug. But his unhappy mother drags him out from under the rug and they set out into the nearby meadow to look for comfortable materials for shoes for his one hundred feet. Thaddeus reluctantly but obediently tries on various pieces of meadow materials, even unthawed snow, but problems are met with all of them. Slipping and sliding, tumbling and tripping are only a few problems that appear throughout this journey for new shoes. Finally, in aggravation and exhaustion, Thaddeus stamps his feet and strongly suggests that he and his mother return home. His mother, in her own frenzied need, agrees with him. The answer to Thaddeus' needed shoes is found at the edge of a small pond and a green, slimy moss covered rock at its edge which they pass on their way home. The author invites you to read the story and celebrate with Thaddeus as he wiggles his new shoes in the air!

Thaddeus Centipede Needs New Shoes

“Maddie’s Magic Tree” is the story of a young girl’s love for animals and nature. She excitedly sees the first white, winter’s snowflakes as she rises from bed. She rushes out into the surrounding meadow and meets the hero of the story, a young Pine tree heavily covered in snow with a magic wave to Maddie as she relieves the tree from the white burden on its branches, a group of animals and birds all receiving magical gifts from the tree, and a spying Maddie from behind a tree that magically sends animals to successfully find food during the winter. Magic! Magic! Magic! The author inspires children from the goodness in the story of the kindness of the Magic tree in silently guiding the animals to find food for themselves and their family, and the love and caring heart of Maddie in wanting to keep the animals safe and fed through the winter. The gratitude of the animals toward the tree when they find needed food and the outpouring of love in the gifts with which they decorate the tree become the loving symbol of their love for the tree. This story can be a channel to strengthen love, gratitude, kindnes and caring in the minds of young children. How was “Magic” shown in the story? Why was Maddie always so worried? What does the last illustration show us about loving each other? Why was Maddie so happy with her “hug?”

Margaret Redfern

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