The end of this week couldn’t have been more different from the start. I got a good soaking on Monday but, by Sunday, was craving the shade. No wonder us Brits talk about the weather so much!
Anyway, Week 27 of my wild adventure brought me:
🌧 A wet walk by the River Thames
🌺 A new meadow to explore
🦋 More butterflies
🌼 A new hyacinth project
Read on to find out more 😊
Monday 12th July 2021
With another mini-trip coming to an end, we set off from our hotel in Oxford to the station. It was absolutely heaving it down and I had the bright idea to walk along the river to ‘get to the station quicker’. As it turned out, it took us much longer. We were drenched. Drowned rats. And – could it really have been any other way in the UK? – as soon as we walked into the station, the sun came out…
Hopefully you can see just how wet it was from the photos. I have to keep telling myself that we would never have seen the amazing heron had we not had a soaking!
Tuesday 13th July 2021
Another busy day back. I hardly made time for anything other than work today, but I decided to try and ‘ground’ myself when I finally finished. ‘Grounding’ is when you try and connect with the present in a physical way. So I took my shoes and socks off and went out into the garden. My plan was to have a moment feeling the grass between my toes.
One of my cats, however, had other ideas. As soon as he saw my bare feet in the grass, Claude decided he should try and pounce on them. Luckily I saw him coming so managed to dodge at the last moment (he can’t retract his claws even when he wants to, bless him). I then promptly lured him back into the house and locked the cat flap.
Well, I thought I’d locked the cat flap. Turns out I hadn’t. Out he came. Back in he went. And this time I made sure I’d definitely locked the cat flap. This is a photo of that moment. With Claude sulking inside, I finally got to the task at hand. I walked onto the grass, closed my eyes and listened to the sound of the trees, plants, insects and birds.
Wednesday 14th July 2021
I always go for walks in my local ‘meadow’ but it turns out I’d completely forgotten about an actual, actual, meadow on the other side of town. It’s absolutely full of wildflowers, including: common chicory, common bird’s-foot trefoil and clovers. And there were countless meadow browns and silver-y moths this morning too!
Thursday 15th July 2021
I read something recently with a useful bit of advice. If you take the time to learn the names of a few birds, insects, trees, mammals or any type of wildlife – and maybe a few facts about them too – it can open up a whole new world around you. And, today, I realised that this is so true.
I went for another early morning walk and kept hearing the same bird call. I realised I’d heard it on Monday and remembered that I’d looked up the sound on my phone. It was a yellow hammer. To me, a yellow hammer call really does sound a bit like a hammer being pounded a few times (di-di-di-di-di) and then ends with a final, meaningful bash (diiiiiiiiii). Now that I’ve learnt this sound, I’m sure I’ll hear it all the time on walks. And, sometimes, it’s only when you learn these calls that you realise just how many of those birds are out there – I definitely experienced that when I found out what a wren sounds like. They’re literally everywhere!!!
And you don’t always have to get it right. I sometimes get pretty frustrated if I can’t work out what something – usually a bird or an insect, or, more recently, maybe a tree or flower – is, but that’s ok. It’s a simple, but hard lesson: sometimes learning something can just be for you and it can just be for fun.
Friday 16th July 2021
What a glorious day! I must confess, when I headed out to the meadow by the river, I didn’t think I’d see much – it’s just so damn hot!
How wrong I was. When I went through the gate, a thrush took off in front of me with a snail in its beak. A few yards ahead, it stopped and bashed the poor thing on the path and then took off again. Next up were the goldfinches frollicking in the wildflowers and a green woodpecker flew past me to land on the post of a dead tree. All I could hear was the gentle humming of the grasshoppers.
And there were SO many butterflies and dragonflies around. Small tortoiseshells, some sort of fritillary (they’re so hard to identify when they don’t settle!), meadow browns, marbled whites, large whites, brimstones. I potentially saw some small coppers as well. And lots of beautiful demoiselles (I think!)
A swallow also swooped past and landed on the pea crop. I really wish I’d brought the binoculars but I still got a nice view (it would’ve been a pretty poor photo though!) What I love about this walk, in addition to the wildlife, is the secret sight you sometimes have the opportunity to glimpse. Like the layers of nettles, reeds and brambles that line the steep banks of the river.
Saturday 17th July 2021
A beautiful pink rose has just opened up in the garden. Since moving to this house (two summers ago), we’ve been lucky enough to see a single rose open and reveal itself to the world, just when the time’s right. This year, not only do we have this single, beautiful flower – it looks like there are at least 3 other buds too! How exciting!
Sunday 18th July 2021
Another Sunday. Another week been and gone. I realise I’ve been quite quiet on the art-front over the past couple of weeks. Working a few late events plus having work done on the house has made it a bit more tricky to get properly into something.
Saying that, I’ve been trying to do at least a little bit of artwork each day. It’s been a bit hit and miss, but I wanted to share this work-in-progress with you. I drew a purple hyacinth all the way back in February this year. An old school friend asked if she could buy it and she’s asked me to do a couple more to match. I’ve been working on this slowly but surely all week and it’s almost, almost done.
*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 