Week 41 felt much more autumnal to me and I am loving the colours! Not as much walking this week, but I’ll be getting my walking boots out for the ‘Big Wild Walk’ during Week 42! Fancy taking part too?
Back to Week 41 for a sec – let’s take a look at a few highlights! Over the week, I particularly enjoyed:
📖 Reading some fascinating moth stories
🌼 Admiring the ivy blooms
🐌 Drawing a snail
🍂 Oxfordshire’s Autumnal trees
The full story, as ever, is below and if you’d like to know more about the Big Wild Walk (Mon 25th – Sun 31st October), head over to the Wildlife Trusts on Twitter!
Monday 18th October 2021
I’m really enjoying a book about moths at the moment. Much ado about mothing is a fascinating read about these critters and I’m seriously considering how I could create a cat-proof moth trap in my garden (I really don’t want my cats contributing to the moth decline!)
A chapter I read this morning mentioned a range of weird and wonderful moths which I just had to share with you – have you ever heard of a Kentish Glory, for example? Or a Belted Beauty?
Tuesday 19th October 2021
Ok. LOOK at this spider.
I could stop there, but I do have a few more words to say about this photo. It was one of the photos included in a Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2021) round-up. It’s a clever photo – the Brazilian wandering spider is actually under a bed and all the tiny spiders are her spawn. The ‘forced perspective’ makes the spider look like she’s the size of an entire wall. Though that isn’t the case, apparently these spiders are the size of a human hand (and they’re very venomous!) so I definitely wouldn’t want one under my bed!
Wednesday 20th October 2021
Today is my first walk of the week. I don’t like this reduction in walking. I try my best but the shorter days make it harder to go through the meadow or walk on country lanes. This evening had to be different – there was no doubt in my mind that I needed the walk. The river is an awful lot higher than the last time I went around the meadow. That’s one of the things I noticed. I also noticed the long-tailed tits (there are so many of them in the bushes at the moment) and the beautiful ivy blooms.
Thursday 21st October 2021
I need to be honest with you. I’m struggling with the faster pace of life at times at the moment. There are so many things to think about, remember and do. I’d never want to experience what we’ve been through again, but I think I need to ring-fence some more time for myself (where I don’t have to think about a million things!)
I tried to do this after work today by having another walk, but I found my mind was preoccupied with lots of thoughts: it’s going to get dark soon, must hurry up, need to do a rapid flow test before going to the office tomorrow, what on earth am I doing on Saturday when I’m working, I forgot to reply to that teacher, need to write my blog post. And that last point, in particular, made me realise I need to stop. ‘Acts of wildness’ shouldn’t be chores on a list. That was never the point. And I hope I don’t forget that again!
Anyhoo, to try and focus my mind away from some of these distractions, I had a good look at this intriguing bush. Apparently it’s a leatherleaf mahonia.
Friday 22nd October 2021
Given the mornings are a little too dark for a stroll, and given what I said about ring-fencing some more ‘me’ time, I started the day off with some artwork. It was going to be a busy day at work, but I tried to ignore that and spent 45 minutes on a snail. It doesn’t look like much at the moment, but I’ve been using some of the advice and tips from the Sam Clift workshops I watched recently. I’ve been taking my time, looking at the colours properly, building the pencil layers gradually. I know it might not look perfect by the end, but I’m determined to keep going.
Saturday 23rd October 2021
I do not enjoy working Saturdays and I really don’t enjoy working Saturdays when I have to be at an event for 7.30 in the morning! Fortunately, I only have to work the occasional Saturday and, despite my complaints, I knew a university open day wasn’t going to be the worst kind of event to work on (and it was entirely voluntary so I only had myself to blame!)
After I parked up, I headed towards registration with a slight feeling of apprehension. This is the first large event I’ve been involved with for a very long time and I wasn’t sure what to expect. As I walked, I heard some long-tailed tits in the trees lining the road up through campus. A couple of gulls chortled and cackled above me before one of them let out a typical seaside screech. I smiled to myself and was thankful to the birds for giving me some last minute courage.
Sunday 24th October 2021
This is the day I’ve been looking forward to all week – walk day! My partner and I nipped into Oxfordshire for the walk today and started off in a place called Cornwell. Some of the trees looked very autumnal as we walked through the village, but there were others are clinging to their green hue. I wonder how long before they turn too.
As we headed through the fields to another village called Churchill, some red kites, pheasants, sparrows, chaffinches, blue tits and nuthatches presented themselves. A couple of bullfinches also made an appearance after the halfway point. I really love their bold black and white rumps when they fly – that’s my go-to for identification these days!
*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 