#30dayswild with The Wildlife Trust – days 1-15

We’ve been having so much fun with the #30dayswild nature challenge. I thought I’d log details of what we’ve been doing as I’m sure we’ll want to join in again next year. On days when we’ve not been able to venture very far the Wildlife Trusts #30dayswild app has been brilliant and provided us with suggestions for things we wouldn’t necessarily have thought of. Like cloud watching which we do sometimes anyway but hadn’t considered it a challenge option. It was perfect on a hectic Friday that included all the fun of the school fete.

Day 1 – adding our bumble bee sightings in Gloucester to the #GreatBritishBeeCount

Day 2 – playing, drawing and bee spotting in our friends garden in Stroud. Nothing extraordinary about that but when you don’t actually have a garden of your own and haven’t seen your friends since January it’s pretty special

Day 3 – more bee spotting in Gloucester for the #GreatBritishBeeCount but our first honeybees and carder bees in a friends garden this time

Day 4 – an early start to day 4 of #30dayswild with the return of the school run. 4 snails, 1 spider, 3 black bugs (not sure what they are), some ants, 5 cats, a swath of self-seeded poppies. Not bad for a 10 minute urban walk. The bees weren’t up yet 🐝.

Day 5 – a visit to the park after school with our picnic tea and spotting honeybees in the hedgerow on the way home (having forgotten to take any pictures at the park!)

Day 6 – inspired by Zoe’s Artworks #30dayswildlifedrawing we collected leaves and flowers on the walk home from school for our 6 year old artist Euan to sketch.

Day 7 – my favourite so far, a blissful morning digging for worms, running barefoot through the grass, mud painting rocks and sniffing leaves from the herb garden at a friends house. Life doesn’t get much better than this when you’re 2 (and what a fabulous nap this boy had after all that fun!)

Day 8 – inspiration from the #30dayswild app on school Fete Friday.

Day 9 – a busy day out with the boys as a tourist in our own City! No wildlife encounters unless you count having to say ‘Hello‘ to every dog we pass on any walk with Luca. We spent the day in town enjoying the celebrations to mark 1100 years since the death of the Warrior Queen Aethelflaed who thought off Viking invaders and re-built the City. St Oswalds Priory where Aethalflaed was buried was transformed into an Anglo-Saxon camp for the weekend and the boys were excited to hear George perform his Aethelflaed song, produced as part of his Spaces Gloucester music project, as part of the celebrations.

Day 10 – birdwatching, albeit from our bedroom, using our National Trust binoculars to observe a nesting seagull on a chimney pot

Day 11 – visiting the allotment with Luca who made a new friend called Zac and spent a happy half an hour playing ball with him. Later on we spotted a squirrel and snacked on Dave’s broad beans.

Day 12 – more collecting of leaves and sticks on the way home. Euan and I turned sycamore seeds into dragonflies – an idea I’d pinned years ago!

Day 13 – foraging elderflower heads with Luca to make into cordial

Day 14 – bottling our elderflower cordial with the happy accidental result of making preserved lemon slices!

Day 15 – a toddler paced wonder walk back from school simply noticing curious things along the way.

It’s been interesting to see how our focus on #30dayswild has waned a little with the busyness of school and hectic weekends so it’s been really good to have the Wildlife Trust’s app to turn to for ideas. Best of all has been following the hashtag #30dayswild on Instagram and Twitter and seeking inspiration from others taking part in the challenge. I wonder how our next 15 days will look …..