As lover of fantasy novels, it would be a very poor show if I didn’t celebrate Hobbit Day today.

As some of you may know, Shire Hobbits, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins share this day as their birthday. To honour them, and their fellow Hobbits (and, let’s face it, JRR Tolkien who wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books), today is for them.

To celebrate, why not have a birthday cake at your second breakfast, dig out one of those fab books or hold a Hobbit party?

Arrr, me hearties (or as my son used to say ‘Arrr me parties’), today be Talk Like a Pirate Day.

To celebrate matey, you simply talk like a pirate (and probably drive everyone nuts!) and generally have a good pirating time! Arrrrrrr!

Today is World Ozone Day which marks the date when the Montreal Protocol was signed (Sept 16, 1987). The Protocol was an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out ozone damaging chemicals.

This day was set up in 1994 to raise awareness of the depletion of the Ozone layer and the continuing research being put in to protect and preserve it.

People from all over the world are expected to descend on Montreal, Canada today to take part in a number of special events (talks, seminars etc) and discuss the issues.

Roald Dahl birthday quiz – how well do you know your Dahl? Quentin Blake

This is one of my all-time favourite days…Roald Dahl Day, a day celebrating the genius that was the writer Roald Dahl.

Not only did he write wonderful children’s books (Fantastic Mr Fox being one of my favourites), but he also wrote some great autobiographies, and screenplays for adults.

Born in Cardiff on September 13, 1916 to Norwegian parents, at the age of three Roald suffered the loss of both his father and sister. He was educated in Wales and England, and went on to be a fighter pilot in World War 2. He also worked as a diplomat, writer and intelligence officer.

Throughout his writing career, he wrote 19 novels, 13 story collections, three books of poetry, 12 scripts, edited one book and nine non-fiction books. He sold more than 200 million books across the world. He died on November 23, 1990 at the age of 74.

Celebrate Roald Dahl day by dressing up as your favourite characters, reading his books or watching one of the many film adaptations of his greatest children’s novels.

https://www.roalddahl.com/

Today we’re going to celebrate Wildlife Day, which aims to remind us all that we need to stand up for all wildlife. That’s not just endangered species on the plains of Africa, but out domestic wildlife too.

Every year we lose numerous species as humans take over land that was once the homes of different animals be that tigers or snow leopards or even the hedgehogs in our back gardens.

 All animal life is precious, so let’s celebrate them today, let’s raise our voices to protect them and save them for future generations to enjoy.

Wildlife Day was created to honour the memory of The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin who was killed by a sting ray way back in 2006. He was a leading expert and conservationist.

To celebrate Wildlife Day and to remember Steve (as all us folk of a certain age certainly do quite fondly), why don’t you support a wildlife charity, pop along to an animal sanctuary or zoo, donate time or money to a wildlife cause or find out how you can make your garden more attractive to wildlife.