And so ends the last full week of this year’s ’30 Days Wild’! It’s been so nice to take part in this challenge again and, I have to say, it’s also very reassuring to know that my wild challenge won’t come to an end on July 1st! I’m gonna keep on goin’!
Let’s get straight to the highlights! This week, I:
🐦 Said hello to the local guard goose
🐝 Rescued a sleepy bumblebee
🦋 Spotted a new butterfly
🏳️🌈 Made a ‘wild rainbow’
‘Tara for now’ – and enjoy! 😊
Monday 21st June 2021
We stormed our way back to Shipston this morning. It was another shocker of a day in London – oh the rain! – so we headed back to the West Midlands a little earlier than planned and prayed for nicer weather at home.
And it turns out our wishes were granted! The rain stopped at Oxford and it was dry enough for us to have a walk in the afternoon. We just did a little local one. And, though I’ve done this walk many times, I don’t think I’ve ever shared one of the absolute highlights I pass almost every time: the guard goose!
Yes, there’s a guard goose in the garden of a house on the walk. We haven’t seen her for a little while and I think I worked out why today. The grass in the garden she lives in has gone absolutely wild. It’s so tall! And, this afternoon, there she was, tucked away in the tall grass, having a good nibble on the blades she could reach.
Tuesday 22nd June 2021
I had a cheeky bonus day off today and I was craving artwork. Procrastination is such an interesting thing. This is the usual way it goes with my artwork:
1. I decide I’d like to do some artwork, knowing it’ll make me feel better
2. I spend hours doing anything but artwork
3. I create a list of life admin and visit the cats in their room repeatedly saying ‘I’ll start some artwork in the next hour’
4. Eventually, I sit down to do some artwork (if it isn’t too late in the afternoon!)
5. I feel much better
It’s a bad habit! And I really wanted to avoid falling into a procrastination spiral today so I whacked out the pencils and watercolours early and settled down to work on some different pieces. The landscape is inspired by my Yorkshire Dales adventure in May. I also made a little watercolour birthday postcard for a friend. The next challenge is to finish them!
Wednesday 23rd June 2021
A craved something else this morning. A walk to Honington!
Honington is a little village just down the road from town and I walked there almost every day in February when I was doing a step challenge. Because of my ankle, I haven’t walked this way for weeks and I’ve really missed it.
One of the reasons I love this walk is that the flowers change all the time. It’s where I spotted my first snowdrops of the year. The snowdrops then made way for the daffodils, who then moved over for pansies and tulips. And now it’s the roses that have the limelight. I think this walk in particular made me appreciate some of the benefits of a slower pace of life last year.
Thursday 24th June 2021
Have you ever wondered what to do when you have an exhausted bee on your window? Well, this was my predicament today.
It felt quite muggy first thing, but that quickly changed to pretty darn cold. I realised mid-morning that the living room window was still open and was surprised to see a huge bumblebee sitting towards the bottom. Initially, I naively thought that it might just fly out of the window so I decided not to disturb the bee and left the window open.
An hour or so later, it hadn’t moved. And I got my thinking-cap on. I’m a little worried at how long it took me to realise it had probably lost all its energy, but eventually the lightbulb came on! I sprung into action, realising I needed to help this poor creature. And what did I do? I did what all millennials these days do – I grabbed my phone and googled the problem (‘how to help tired bees’). And the answer was to mix 2 spoons of sugar with 1 spoon of water and leave the liquid within reach of the bee.
I think it was a buff-tailed bumblebee but I’m not 100% sure. What I do know is that the poor thing really didn’t like it when I accidentally placed the sugary liquid too close to its legs. It started making a buzzing noise but couldn’t move its wings yet. So I left it alone near the spoon for a while, hoping it would calm down and take some of the artificial nectar. When I came back in, I could see it’s long tongue licking up the sugar and breathed a sigh of relief. It headed out the window not long afterwards.
Friday 25th June 2021
Am I the only person who, when you hear the word ‘geranium’, sings ‘GERANIUMMMM’ to the tune of Robbie Williams’ Millennium? I’m concerned the answer might be yes!
For today’s act of wildness, I sat and admired a beautiful pink geranium that my partner’s mum bought me a few weeks ago. The photo doesn’t do this flower justice – the colours are so vibrant. How does mother nature do it?!
Saturday 26th June 2021
I remember writing about a brown butterfly last year. Well, it’s not really brown. It’s orange. But it has this seemingly ‘boring’ colour in its name: meadow brown.
Well, today, I didn’t just spot my first meadow brown of 2021 but I also got a fabulous view of a beautiful, brown speckled wood butterfly. I absolutely love the spots on a speckled brown and seeing this little critter gave me an excuse to swot up. Here’s what I learnt:
🦋 It likes woodland (makes sense), hedgerows and gardens
🦋 It can be seen fluttering around between March and October
🦋 The best way to identify it is through the spots on its wings (3 on each hindwing and 1 on the forewing)
🦋 In south west Europe, the speckled wood is brown and orange instead of brown and cream
Sunday 27th June 2021
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust has been amazing throughout ’30 Days Wild’ and they’ve shared loads of suggestions of things people can do to bring wildlife into their daily lives. I decided today was the day to take the Trust up on one of its suggestions: ‘Race for a Rainbow’.
June is also Pride Month, celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ rights is a cause very close to my heart so I scrambled around the garden to create my very own photo rainbow using anything wild I could find. I only cheated on the blue – the blue sky was from a few days ago!
For the other colours, we have: scarlet firethorn berries, an unripe cherry, some dandelions, European dewberry leaves and Serbian bellflowers.
*For anyone new to my blog, let me explain a bit more about what these posts are about. Every week I share a summary of my daily ‘acts of wildness’. This wildlife challenge was inspired by ’30 Days Wild’ and ’12 Days Wild’ from The Wildlife Trusts. The ‘356’ isn’t a typo – typically, I only thought about doing this after 2021 had already started so I won’t be able to do a full year this time. Next year will be different though! Thank you and I hope you’ve enjoyed the post!
Ramblings of a (very!) amateur artist 