30 days wild, week1

Shutting your eyes to listen to bird song. Taking a wild walk at lunchtime. Lying back in the long grass. Searching out urban wildlife. Talking to someone your street about nature. Eating something wild. Can you make nature part of your life - every day for a month?

I decided that I would LOVE to sign up to 30 days Wild with the Wildlife Trusts. Louise from Rambles of a Roachling mentioned it and started her own special blog for it- really, really worth going to see- please do!

1st June: listening to the rustle, the wind and feeling the rain.

Today, I decided to do something I don't usually do and went and sat outside on my patio with my eyes shut, and occasionally open, staring into infinity whilst listening to the rustle of plentiful trees around where I live. It began to rain, a drop a a time, a soft beckoning towards what was coming and I let it fall on my head and enjoyed it. It was 21:20 and it was getting dark. It was cold but a good sort of cold. The cold you welcome because it is a peaceful, reflective companion.  The wind surged forward and back around my head but I was shielded by the house.  As I opened my eyes, I glanced at the garden which I have really been trying to put my care into this Spring.  I looked at my plants. Well, they aren't MY plants, plants are their own beings, but perhaps, the plants over whom I am custodian and it felt good to have nurtured them. As I was away last week, I felt anxious for them, hoping they were getting some rain and were being left alone by snails and slugs.   I would have gladly stayed out there longer than that five minutes but for someone lighting a bonfire and the smell destroying my otherwise restorative air.

2nd June:  Walking barefoot in the grass.


We went out to a lindyhop class for the first time in an age and so got back at about 11.20 (eek, on a school night) and I hadn't done anything. Luckily I remembered Louise's idea to walk barefoot in grass so I headed outside in my dress and walked about in the dark, praying there were no intrepid slugs and snails on the move. It was lovely as I was still roasting hot from the dance class and needed to cool off and wind down and 5 minutes outside was equivalent to 25 minutes monging on the sofa!

3rd June: Teaching someone else what you know about wildlife

Another of Louise's ideas. I take KS2 Singing assembly on Wednesdays and I decided that I would teach the children 6 butterflies that they might see in our town as the children I teach are unlikely to have such knowledge or experience and there is little time in the curriculum for extras. I placed 6 pictures of butterflies I know live where the school is on my song powerpoint and after an introduction to 30 days wild, I said they had a challenge to see if they could match the butterfly to each name I said. They all had to put up the number of fingers to indicate which butterfly they thought was which. Luckily, whoever named these butterflies gave them names which suited their appearance so the children excitedly guessed most correctly (Painted lady was the only really contentious one). Finally, I asked them to go through and name each one in order which they did with alacrity. Several came up to me and told me that they'd seen Holly Blue butterflies in the garden and another told me about the Red Admiral he'd seen.  I thought it was a nice starter to assembly and I've decided that next week, I will test them on those butterflies and introduce them to 6 types of tree, 6 types of bird, 6 types of flower etc for the remainder of the summer term.

*Friday update:  My year 5's excitedly told me that they could remember ALL the butterflies and proceeded to name them. One or two said they'd seen various butterflies in their gardens.

After school, having had another horrid headache,  after choir, I didn't do any work but I headed out into the garden with my cup of tea and sat in my foldup moon chair for an hour and enjoyed sitting there with barefeet on grass, tea in hand, calmly enjoying the feeling of being outdoors. Slowly, my headache receded.   Being wild is sometimes the only cure!

Thursday 4th June:   Creating an artwork out of natural materials and leaving it for someone to find

This was another of Louise's ideas.  I was really keen to do this one. I live at the end of a row of houses with a big green that oodles of dog-walkers go past so I knew I'd have a captive audience!
I returned home needing to prepare for my Observation lesson on Friday for school but needed something to calm my mind after the day. I headed out to the garden and chopped the leaves off a load of weeds in the front garden and back- there's some epic weeds!  I also took some leaves from our Mexican Orange Blossom bush and from the spiky red pineapple type shrub and headed for the green.

Here's the process of building
VERY therapeutic. I felt genuinely excited about doing this but at the same time, calm, I felt my heart rate slow down, I fe.  A few dog walkers walked past the other end and  a lady in a motorised wheelchair stopped to pause with her dog. I told her what she was up to and she said she'd look out for it in her morning walk with the dog. Then my landlord turned up to pick up some post. He clearly thinks I am an utter psycho! Oh well, his loss!

And you can see it from the path.  I wonder how many people really look around them and appreciate the sights in front of them or how many just look downwards! Resisted the opportunity to stalk it out of the window and see if there were any reactions (can see it from my bedroom window) but had too much else to do.  I LOVED doing this and really recommend it as a task.  CBC suggested I spell 30 Days wild in leaves but by that point, I'd already been out there for a look time.


Friday 5th June: Sleeping in the wild

To be honest, today was a bit of a cop out as I had rushed from school to music camp and spent the evening rehearsing the opera. It was gone 10 by the end of the rehearsal and after I'd had cocoa and sorted out my hot water bottle, it was rather too late to do anything.  Thus, I cleaned my teeth outside listening to the night sounds and washed my face in ice-cold water with open air next to me. Walked to the tent  Lying in the tent, I listened to the night sounds and felt the cool air around me. Not very wild, but still a little bit wild!

Saturday 6th June:  Woodland light

To my shame, in the afternoon in the hour and a half we had free from rehearsals, I went to my tent to get something and fell asleep so my plans for a delightful foraging, exploring nature kind of walk went by the wayside as I woke with a panic to the sound of the oboe "A" for tuning up!
Nonetheless, I had plans for the evening that could suffice instead. The woods near camp are pretty ancient and I feel such a peaceful tranquillity and safety when I enter them. After the final rehearsal preceding supper at around 7.45pm, I headed off alone into the wood.  I feel a kind of awe at the size of those trees and feel like they are old friends, welcoming me back. But what I was looking at closely tonight was the interplay of the fading light of day through the trees.  The woods can seem dark at this time of the day but you see such beautiful shards of light, illuminating a place in a heavenly halo of golden touch.  The most mundane simple blade of grass becomes a precious, chosen exhibit. It is a constantly changing phenomena; such is the nature of light. This glorious display shifts and teases, perplexes and dazzles as it seeks new subjects to illuminate.  Again, as I've found with all these wild activities, it slows your heart rate down, holds you in a kind of thrall.

Here are just a few of the many photos I took. I can't  do the natural light show justice though- I can only capture a pale imitation.











Sunday 7th June:  Following a bumble bee on its journey.

This morning, having risen early for a shower, eaten breakfast, peeled some potatoes, I still had some 40 minutes before the commencement of the rehearsal so I decided to find a small friend to follow. As I left the orchestral barn, I heard the excited hum of a multitude of bumblebees exploring the flowers.  I started at the blue Centaurea flowers, spying those jolly, furry bees on a mission. I selected a bee to follow and examined her closely, noticing the proboscis, the pollen scattered all over its back and legs, having a good old delve into the flowers.  My chosen worker buzzed off suddenly and I manically tried to follow.  I tracked her down at the Honeysuckle, although I confess, it probably was another one.  They loved the honeysuckle and it was a comical sight seeing them cling onto the bell-like sides of the bloom and swing gathering nectar.



I spent a good half an hour there looking closely. I had my nose and camera literally millimetres from them and they didn't seem to mind the intrusion, they just went around their duties, spending a while in rich flowers and quickly exiting unyielding blooms and I grew all the more fond of them all the while.