I’ve been writing about trees again and remembering the garden where every photo of my family was taken. In this one I’m leaning on my favourite tree – a white, weeping broom in full bloom. I was probably about 6 or 7 years old . . . .

This is a photo of Siobhan O’Sullivan and I. We became friends and colleagues soon after the Animals and Society Study Group (now the Australasian Animal Studies Association) was formed in 2005. Siobhan passed away today and this is my personal tribute . . . .

In Autumn, wasps came to drink at the Ragged Garden birdbath. They flew to the edge of the bath, leaned in till their feelers nearly touched the surface, then dipped their tiny mouths in the water.

This photo was taken at Budj Bim National Park in southwestern Victoria, Australia. The park gives a unique insight into the lives of the Gunditjmara people who lived in this rich and productive landscape, forged by a long history of volcanic activity, for many thousands of years.

This photo was taken at a performance of Brahms German Requiem, which has been called ‘an anthem for our time’. I was one of 430 singers who took part in this moving event - read more about why this requiem is so relevant today . . . .

This stray kitten came into my life for just two days, but made a huge impact. Read about Sweetie, how she was rescued and all that I learnt from my time with her.

On 14 December I took part in an Arts and Humanities roundtable on thylacine de-extinction, organised by Sarah Bezan from the University of York. One of the images of a thylacine I talked about was made by the Yaburara people of the Dampier Archipelago in Western Australia. Is this a good resurrection?

"It was pouring with rain as we toured the abandoned zoo – as if tears were falling from every animal ever confined there" Read my article, with Brendan Lennard, about the animals in the zoo that stood on Hobart's Domain from 1923 to 1937.

The Ragged Garden now has a sign and an area of plants native to Tasmania. The native plants acknowledge the muwinina people who lived on this land for thousands of years before the Ragged School was built. The sign says ‘This garden was planted in memory of the children of Wapping’, but now it also remembers the people who cared for this landscape before colonisation . . . .

How much do you know about seagulls? For a start, seagulls are not one species but many and they do not necessarily live by the sea. I knew very little about their lives until I researched the silver gulls of Hobart for a conference presentation.