356 Days Wild: Week 1

I’ve set myself a new challenge for 2021. A ‘wild’ one.

As those of you who have read quite a few of my posts may know, I’m a big fan of wildlife and the benefits it can have on wellbeing. A couple of The Wildlife Trusts’ challenges really brought this home to me over the past year (30 Days Wild and 12 Days Wild).

During these challenges, I could feel the weight of everyday life start to ease off me, but I’ve also found that I haven’t been keeping it up. So, in an effort to do just that, I’m starting a personal ‘356 Days Wild’ challenge for 2021.

Let me address the obvious question first. It isn’t a typo. It’s meant to be 356. You see, I had a moment of realisation on Friday 15th January. I was walking through the local meadow and was listening to the radio. It was all doom and gloom as usual so I took my earphones out and decided I needed to start paying attention to the wildlife around me again. And not just as a one-off. I also realised that it was a bit of a shame that I hadn’t had this epiphany on the 1st January or even on the 5th January when ‘12 Days Wild’ ended. So that’s why it’s 356 days – I can’t pretend to backdate the last 9 days to make it up to the full year!

Although I’ve pitched this as a ‘challenge’ for myself, my experience of ’30 Days Wild’ and ‘12 Days Wild’ taught me that encounters with the natural world and its wildlife can be as big or small as you like. Just noting down ‘a random act of wildness’ each day – even if it’s a teeny tiny thing – can be helpful. And, though I’m planning to post about my challenge each week, I can’t promise that it’s always going to be full of different, out-there things. Sometimes there might be a piece of art, other times there might not even be a photo. But hopefully writing about my challenge will continue to help me with my own wellbeing and might even give you a few ideas about how to enjoy the wildlife around you too.

So, here’s the start of my ‘356 Days Wild’ challenge:

Friday 15th January 2021

The highlight of my (very muddy!) walk was definitely the birds. I was lucky enough to spot two green woodpeckers, some goldfinches, some long-tailed tits and a moorhen. It made me think about my list of birds that I’d like to paint. I’ve already had a go at most of these but I reckon there’s room for another try at a green woodpecker – they’re just too colourful to resist!

Saturday 16th January 2021

I like to have a bit of background noise when I paint, draw or do things around the house. It was all about the chores this morning so I decided to find a new podcast. I searched for ‘wildlife’ on BBC podcasts and an unexpected one popped up. It’s called the Countryside Hour on BBC Radio Norfolk. I don’t live in Norfolk but I thought there wasn’t any harm in giving it a go. I listened to Chris the Norfolk farmer for 30 minutes. He reminded me that we’re heading towards increasingly longer days (win!) and also told a lovely story about 3 fox cubs on his farm.

Sunday 17th January 2021

I finally started to tackle some things in the garden today but that wasn’t the act of wildness I’m going to note down for the end of my first ‘week’ of 356 Days Wild. I’m sure it will feature in the future though! Instead, it was all about painting this chaffinch. I found this one a little difficult to do but I wanted to capture his vibrant colours and I think I managed to do that. 

Any tips, advice or ideas for other ‘wild’ things to do are very much welcome! Looking forward to seeing what next week has in store – wish me luck!!! 😊