Dede Sophie

Readers, please join me welcoming Bernadine Feagins, author of Hakim & Terrance Shadow Mystery who’s guest blogging here today, courtesy Pump Up Your Book Promotion . Hakim & Terrance Shadow Mystery is a children’s book about a boy named Hakim, his faithful dog, Shadow, and his best friend, Terrance. Shadow disappears one day and with the help of Terrance, Hakim’s family and people from the neighborhood, Hakim and Shadow are reunited. The book depicts friendship, hope and devotion to a dog. Both my son and my nephew love dogs, so they were my inspiration for this story. I based my characters on real children. If children can identify with characters, it helps them interpret the events around them and help them solve their own problems like Hakim and Terrance learned as they searched for Shadow. I want children to know that it is important to do the right thing, even though that isn’t always easy. The book is easy to read and understand. It will also help children s...

Its rare to come across any nerine in the UK unless it is the ubiquitous (and the only species proven to be hardy in the UK) Nerine bowdenii – the Guernsey lily, name as such despite its South African origins! However there are approximately 20–30 other half-hardy and tender species in the genus, the exact number of which is still being debated by scientists. As you would expect from a genus with such a showy blooms, Nerines have been widely cultivated and much hybridized worldwide, especially Nerine bowdenii, N. masoniorum, N. sarniensis and N. undulata. Notably, the hybrid cultivar ‘Zeal Giant’ with its umbels of deep pink flowers up to 5 cm across has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit. However most of the other 20 species are rarely cultivated and very little is known regarding their biology.  In fact many species are threatened with extinction due to the loss or degradation of their habitat which is why the collection of Nerines o...