Week 29 was dominated by lots of practice walks for my August fundraising challenge in memory of my grandad.
Walking always brings wildlife highlights and, this week, my ‘acts of wildness’ included:
🌺 Admiring the beautiful hollyhocks dotted across town
🌧 Walking in the rain
🐓 Finishing some Yorkshire Dales chickens
🐌 Rescuing a little snail
I hope you enjoy reading more – full story below 😊
Monday 26th July 2021
T-minus one week to a big work event is always quite stressful. It never feels like there are enough hours in the day by this point and I knew it was going to be a busy week sorting out the last preparations for the online summer school.
After a long day, I realised I hadn’t even been outside yet(!) so I went for a short wander around the town with my partner as dusk was starting to set in. I’ve been meaning to write about the hollyhocks for a long time and spotting them on this short walk was my much-needed ‘act of wildness’ for the day. These plants always amaze me – they burst up through the tarmac each year and nothing can stop them!
Tuesday 27th July 2021
I decided today that I needed to start practicing some early morning walks. With the start of my fundraiser approaching, I knew walking 6.5 miles a day over the first week of August was going to be a challenge.
As it turned out, my cats managed to help me by having a stand-off with another cat in the garden, waking me up at 5.30am. So there was literally no excuse not to get up and go for a 6am walk.
I went around town for this walk. It was just another morning. Nothing particularly unique or different. Very quiet and sleepy. Apart from the birds – the usual suspects were already bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The early bird catches the worm (or seed?) after all. We’re talking sparrows, starlings, wood pigeons, collared doves and blackbirds. The blackbirds were particularly entertaining. They were so vocal and a couple burst out of the bushes just to get further ahead of me as I wandered past. It reminded me of the baby blackbird I drew last year – so cute, so full of character.
Wednesday 28th July 2021
The snail. Such an overlooked creature. So I just had to note this little snail down for the day. I spotted this teeny tiny critter on a bridleway during another evening walk. I picked him up and put him to the side in the hope that he wouldn’t get trampled by anyone there.
Thursday 29th July 2021
With things coming together at last, I found myself in an unexpected – and fortunate – position where I was able to finish work a little early. I realised I hadn’t actually managed to walk 6.5 miles on any day this week so far. It’s not the real thing yet but I thought that wasn’t really ideal before my challenge starts next week!
Now this may sound really odd. But. I have to say. Changing the direction of a walk really can reveal new things. Don’t laugh!
I did one of the longer walks I’ve been practicing. I always walk it in the same direction: bridleway, wheat field, across the beck, past the farm, onto the Tidmington track and then onto the main road. So I went the opposite way this afternoon. I got some lovely views of the fields leading back up to Shipston and I was lucky enough to spot a couple of red admiral butterflies (where have they been this year?) and also got my first good view of a gatekeeper butterfly. Gatekeepers don’t seem to settle very often so I’ve been struggling to see these orange butterflies properly for such a long time!
Friday 30th July 2021
Oh the rain! It was so heavy at times today. And, for most of the working day, I was thankful that I was cooped up inside. Nice and dry.
But then I thought about a slight issue – what on earth was I going to do next week if it rains the whole time? My walking fundraiser still needed to run. You might call me mad, but I just knew I needed to prove to myself that I could withstand a 3-4 mile walk in the rain.
Out came the waterproof coat and out I went. I did a slightly extended version of a common route (through the meadow and then onto the road around town). Though the clouds were dark and stormy, by some miracle, I actually managed to avoid the rain. Tomorrow was a different story!
Saturday 31st July 2021
It isn’t the wild encounter I’d like to note for the day, but a little side note to pick things up from Friday. Though I did not get the soaking I wanted yesterday, let’s just say that today – in the words of Rita Skeeter – “No matter. We got what we wanted”. I was dripping after a walk through one hell of a downpour. But I survived so, yes, I can do this next week if needs be! Not sure if I really needed to prove this to myself!
With that done, what I’d really like to share with you is a piece of art. It’s inspired by my Yorkshire Dales adventure in May and is a watercolour and pencil piece of beautiful Arkengarthdale. Recreating my wild highlights and experiences in art is always so therapeutic and, though the holiday feels like a long time ago, the memories are just so beautiful.
Sunday 1st August 2021
Today was the day! Day 1 of my walking fundraiser for Parkinson’s UK. And I got a head start by going big – a 9.5 mile walk to Whatcote and back. It was very muggy and I was pretty sure it was going to rain but the weather held and the miles clocked up. This will help me out a lot over the next week. I’m still aiming for at least 6.5 miles a day but that’s going to be quite a challenge with my work commitments!
There were a couple of wildlife highlights on this walk too – a fierce heron stormed out from the bank of a pond, let out a screech and landed in a tree and I managed to free a meadow brown butterfly, caught in a spiders web, from a gate near the river. Well, I actually had to free the butterfly twice. On the first attempt it decided to fly straight back into the web *rolls eyes*.
*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 