30 days wild: days 22-28

Hi there, I will try to keep this a bit briefer as I think you got a bit swamped/bored last week and indeed, only one day has anything particularly much to talk about. Let's just say that my random acts of wildness this week were rather rubbish sadly! I was very busy this week and life definitely got in the way!

Monday:  Setting up a bird feeder in my garden.

I knew that this was something simple I could do that I have wanted to do for a while and 30 days wild was the impetus I needed to make it happen.  Also, the gardening work and pruning and chopping off branches of the gorsey tree in my garden meant I had a handy place to hang a feeder which is visible from my window. I headed off to BM, a cheap store local to my school to buy the feeder- cheap but effective. This was to have consequences later in the week…

Tuesday: unexpected birdlife and geocaching!

Tuesday, I walked home from the station wondering what I could do that was new for my act of wildness as I needed to get back fairly soon. When I reached the park, I decided to go and check out the growth of the wildflowers. The patch near to the Wizard and Dragon is doing very nicely, the poppies are blooming!  I decided to head over to the Scarecrow patch to check their progress and I am so glad I did. 

When I got over there, I was inspecting the flowers and sternly telling off some magpies that were pecking when I saw a friend from church and a peacock.

A random peacock had turned up in the park from who knows where!!?!?!

It nonchalantly wandered around the wildflower patch and then headed behind the hollow storm-damaged tree. 

It was taking this picture that made my glance down at the hollow tree and notice a cool hidey hole, perhaps the exit for the slippery slip in the faraway tree.

And I noticed something purple shining in the dark..

Excitement gripped me, wondering if perhaps I had found a geocache and I gingerly put a hand inside (stupidly expecting a booby-trap!) .

Indeed, it WAS a geocache, a new one, and I was the first finder!

Searching in my bag, I only had a kohl eyeliner pencil to sign the log with but luckily I had a Kinder egg toy car I could put into the geocache!

Alas, I can’t find it online to register my finding of it and the email address doesn’t seem to work!

As I walked back around the lake, I saw the coots had a baby who was learning to swim so I stopped to watch him for a while- he was cheeping in a panicked way!

Leaving the park, I head the dulcet tones of a Chaffinch and spied him on the wire!

That's my long day over!

Wednesday:  Wildness chat

I was in a bit of a hurry and hadn’t managed to prepare any new wildlife spotting tips for Singing assembly so instead, I held a feedback session where they could tell the assembly what wildlife they’d seen.  There were so many keen children. One SEN boy in particular has sought me most days to tell me a new item he has found- it’s become a lovely way we can have conversation!  At the end of the talk, I told them what I’d been up to over the last week as my random acts of wildness and told them about my trip to Hanningfields and then told them about my bird feeder, explaining the importance of maintaining it once you’ve begun it as birds can rely upon you in the winter months.  The beauty of this was that on Friday, one little girl came up to me and told me she’d talked about the bird feeder to her Mum who had agreed to buy one for their garden as she thought it was a lovely idea to have ‘pets who live in the wild’- I like that idea- you’re adopting them by helping them but they are free! 

Oh and dinner made use of some of the radishes from my garden.  Also, a very wild looking dinner- all vegetarian so animal friendly!

Thursday:  Orchids spied!

My act of wildness was an accidental one and lasted only about a minute. Thursday ended up being an incredibly difficult day in the evening so I had no chance to do ANYTHING at all in the evening.  BUT, in the morning, as I left the station, I walked past the Halfords car repair place and noticed that there were wild orchids growing at the edge of their site which were making an escape bid onto the pavement!  I love them and I was so glad they were blooming so rampantly. It was a small thing but it touched my day.

Friday:  snacks in the garden

CBC and I were incredibly tired returning home as neither of us had had any sleep the night before but we decided to sit in the garden and drink tea and eat the chocolate eclairs that CBC had bought us as a treat.  We sipped tea sitting on our reclining chairs that his old flatmate had brought round.

I watered the garden and noticed my neighbour’s roses were blooming.

Our bushy tree in our garden (any idea of name?) is looking lovely at the moment it seems a shame to prune it again. This photo makes me laugh as CBC was falling asleep in the background!

The sky was looking beautiful so I stared up at the clouds and drank tea.

Saturday: a walk along the beach and Swift and swallow watching.

We were in Aldeburgh and walked along the beach. I watched the seagulls swooping around in search of any tasty morsels. I love the sea air, sounds and the peacefulness!

Later in the evening, between concert acts, we walked from the Pumphouse back to town and saw many swifts and swallows swooping here there and everywhere. They are so fast!  This is the best shot I got!

And spied some wild flowers!

Sunday:  Walk on the grassy/marshy paths.

I woke up for the dawn chorus in the field camping and lay awake listening to the birds.

In the morning, on the way back from the shower at the camp-site, I noticed there was a beautiful garden in the middle.

Later, when we went to Snape Maltings for our final two concerts, we took a walk through the marshy lands alongside the Alde and noticed more birds and wild flowers. Simple, but a lovely break between the inside performances.

My week hasn’t been particularly adventurous but at least there has been something every day if not particularly wild!

What about you? Leave a comment if you’ve done anything

!xx