30 Days Wild Mid Point

Question: How is it mid-June already?! Time really does fly when you're having fun and I have been having all the fun doing #30DaysWild.

This is what I've been up to these last fifteen days.

June 1st: Scatter Seeds

Of course I coloured this in!

As part of the goodie bag I received from Carole, I had some wild flower seeds to scatter. Obviously, they were going straight into the butterfly corridor! I look every morning to see if anything is sprouting up yet! Nothing so far, but the grass is full of seeds which looks awesome.

June 2nd: Garden Sewing Session

I think it's kraken.

The sun was shining. I had a free day. I was feeling crafty and inspired. Hence, sewing in the garden. I made the cushion shared (link) on Friday last and another project which I cannot reveal yet. It is a seeeeeccrrreeettt.

June 3rd: Drawing Something Wild

All hail the Overlord of the Internet!

From what I recall, the third is when everything suddenly got soggy which made my act of wildness a little more indoors. I had spent the day recording episode five of my podcast and talking about the adorable sea bunny. I dug out my 4B pencil and rubber to have a go at drawing the cutie! It turned out OK. Not fantastic, but it is recognisably a slug!

June 4th: Exploring the Nature Reserve

Norton-in-Hales Nature Reserve

Just outside a nearby village, there is a gorgeous nature reserve. It is where I first interviewed Niamh. When my partner said he was delivering a bike that way, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to have a quick explore with him and the foster dog. Had it been warmer, it would have been nice to wade into the river and look for critters. But as it was, it was nice to walk somewhere a little different for a change.

June 5th: Singing a Song

Having fallen asleep and woken up to the sound of rain, I had the Norah Jones song Come Away With Me in my head aaaaalllll dddaaaayyyy. I love the song, have the chords for it, and felt inspired to give it a go. Who says 30 Days Wild can't be musical?! It was showing my appreciation for the rain.

Still a stretch? I stand by it.

Be grateful I don't sing on here more!

June 6th: Wild Inspo - Bake Something Animal Shaped

Omnomnomnom

In my goodie bag, Carole left me some mystery 30 Days Wild tasks. I was in need of some inspiration and dived into the envelope. The first one I picked out was: Bake Something Animal Shaped. Cracking - I fancied something sweet! I opted for cookies, easy to make into animal shapes with the right tools. Aka a whale tail cutter and an assortment of animals from a nativity cookie set! I used a recipe from the Mermaid Cook Book by Alix Carey. It's a nice and simple recipe, which is quick to whip up. I opted against decorating them. Call it lazy, call it running out of time, call it having no icing sugar - it is what it is. I will be using the recipe again before June is up, maybe I'll ice them then!

We donated a number of the wild biscuits to our friend who works in the NHS (we've been sending her cakes on the regular throughout this whole thing!) and some friends who would have been celebrating their wedding this month. Clearly people in need of animal shaped biscuits.

June 7th: Soggy Evening Walk

Thank goodness for rain coats

This wasn't supposed to be a soggy walk. The sun was out while we were eating our dinner and the dog needed to go for a walk - it seemed like the perfect time. Until the heavens opened a quarter of the way around! Never mind! The plants at a nearby allotment were happy for the rain and it was quite refreshing. Hydrating!

June 8th: Painting Stones

My contributions to the COVID-snake

June 8th ended up being a really wild day! It was World Ocean Day so naturally I had to share some facts. Plus, a blackbird decided to set up camp in my kitchen for a good half an hour! After it's initial flight into my home, where it definitely headbutted a couple walls, it stayed on top of a cupboard long enough for me to determine it was in fact a lady blackbird. She chilled out, watching me chop potatoes for our dinner. My partner was out of the house at the time and I felt like herding her out would require reinforcements. Thankfully, it was an easy affair. She skittered off pretty much as soon as my partner got home. I have still yet to check the top of the cupboard for bird poop. I am afraid to look.

Lady Blackbird

What I actually had planned for the 8th was a two bird, one stone thing. (I realise what I said.) For Christmas a couple years back, I was gifted a craft kit where you paint stones with neon paint to look like sugar skulls. A very "me" gift. I encountered a slight hiccough in that it took me so long to use the kit the paint had dried up! I managed to revive the black and the green. My partner supplied me with paint he uses to touch up the bikes he works on. They were great, I could get some proper detail with those! (I say "detail", I don't mean artistic in any way.)

COVID-snake

The reason I was painting rocks in the first place was to add to the COVID-19 Rock Snake which Carole had started at a nearby bus shelter. I had been looking for an opportunity to add to it and this was the perfect one! We had a lovely time admiring other people's contributions. I particularly liked the dotty painted one and the one with a giant googly eye.

June 9th: I 💚 Shropshire Lens

Hi-tech and fully recyclable!

This one went crazy on Twitter and it wasn't even my idea! I'd seen it on the Facebook group that morning and ran with it! Two schools even retweeted it and tasked their students to make I 💚 Wherever lenses. Madness!

It was one of my favourite acts of wildness, in fairness. Lovely and simple, and fully recyclable! I dug out a bit of cardboard from the recycling bag - we always have plenty. There is a never ending supply coming from the garage. I opted for a simple frame, hence the heart shape. Then it was just a case of point and shoot!

Simple, yet effective

It really made me stop and look at what I normally breeze by on our afternoon walk. I framed flowers, bugs, wild grass, the river... On one section of our walk, we were surrounded by crickets. They were so noisy! I desperately wanted to find one and take a picture. So I stalked towards the source of the noise as quietly and slowly as I could. I had a couple false starts because the dog wanted to hunt for crickets too!

Eventually, I did find one! It was awesome but very difficult to take a picture of - especially with the cardboard frame. On my hunt for a cricket, I also found cuckoo spit. It's amazing what you can find when you stop to have an explore, instead of rushing home to get on and do. But that's what 30 Days Wild is totally about.

June 10th: Setting up a Bird Feeder

Seeds to feed...s...

My lovely friend, English Folkfan, had a couple spare clear bird feeders and very kindly sent them my way. I now have them set up on the patio doors and my study window. That way, whether I am eating my dinner or working hard on my next blog, the wildness can come to me! It is also a chance to put out the bird feed I got at my Grandad's funeral eighteen months ago. I scattered some last June for 30 Days Wild, but still had one jar just sitting on the kitchen windowsill. Now they have filled my feeders and are just waiting for some visitors.

I doubly love this because my Grandad was an avid bird watcher. We used to watch the birds together when I was kid - he even got me my own set of binoculars! So it's nice to have this little connection with him, even though he is not here physically. And I know if they ever fall down, it's because my Grandad's spirit is feeling cheeky and getting the birds to misbehave!

June 11th: Barefoot Walk

Just feel the grass, the dirt, the way I dreamed they'd be 🎵

This was another day where I wasn't really sure what I was going to do. I had some sewing projects to be getting on with but it wasn't nice enough to do it all outside. However, we managed to go on our dog walk during one of the nicer spells of the day but had very much dressed for the previous weather conditions. When we reached a lovely grassy park, my feet were sweltering! The soft, green grass was inviting. The shoes and socks came off - and I had a lovely wander across the grass.

Feeling the grass between my toes made me feel like some kind of wild fairy princess! Much like how standing in the sea makes me feel like a mermaid princess. Yes I am royalty, dang it!

June 12th: New Fish!

Ride or Die Shrampies

Our fish tanks are lovely little ecosystems. The medium one with the landmass and sharks is full of plant life and baby guppies. Our bigger one is still a WIP. The Coin Purse Collective is slowly growing and I will be sharing pictures once they have all settled down a bit. Silver Dollars are rather skittish fish. We also added six cherry shrimps to the medium tank - to help keep the algae levels low.

Being red shrimp, I decided they needed to be named after the Red Dwarf crew, aka The Boys From the Dwarf. I will be sticking my underwater camera in the tank to hopefully get some action shots. The six shrimp are called: Lister, Rimmer, Cat, Kryten, Holly (OG), and Holly (Hattie Hayridge).

June 13th: Backyard Bingo!

Bingo!

What's better than eating lunch outside? Eating lunch outside while playing Wild Bingo! We spotted loads of critters from the Bingo card and even completed a line. We were never going to get a full house, there is no oak tree in our back garden! I was surprised to see how much of the card we did fill, just from the confines of our small garden.

I'm happy that it doesn't just look wild because of the grass!

In searching for critters, I also found something weird on our mint plants. Not sure what it was, I shared pictures to the Facebook group and was informed my mint was rusty. It had a fungus. Thanks to the 30 Days Wild community, I have now removed the fungus, hopefully before it spread to more of my mint. That is one of the best things about 30 Day Wild - the Facebook page. It's such a friendly, welcoming place and there is bound to be someone who knows the answer to my questions. Plus, it goes all year round so I get a little bit of wildness everyday.

June 14th: Fairy Day

Fairy Fun!

I love a good fairy. I spent my teen years doodling them, wistfully wishing I had a pair of wings of my own. People having wings was my solution to pollution - why drive when you can fly?! Bonus benefit, people are getting more exercise as a result. Got to love ill informed teenage ideas, right?

Obviously, my mythical love has gone much more aquatic in recent years, but I do still enjoy a good fairy. And there is so much mythology and lore surrounding them! I thought a fun 30 Days Wild activity would be to spend the day celebrating them and sharing some fun facts. Plus, drawing. Everybody loves drawing. The posts are still on my Facebook page, if you ever want to brush up on some fairy facts!

June 15th: Wild Inspo - Write a Poem About Your Favourite Bug

Humble Bumble

Honestly, I didn't know I had a favourite bug! I toyed with the idea of a shield bug, because I do quite like those. But inspiration struck with the "humble bumble" rhyme and the whole thing just flowed. Here is my Humble Bumble poem again, just in case the picture is a little hard to read.

Humble Bumble

Dear Humble Bumble,

We thank you.

For your fuzzy butts,

For your buzzy calls,

We thank you.

For your pollinating power,

For your love of every flower,

We thank you.

Without the humble bumble,

We would surely crumble,

Such an important role,

For one so small.

So all together now,

I need you to say it too,

"Dear Humble Bumble,

We thank you!"

I am really enjoying 30 Days Wild, thus far. Having put a little thought and preparation in place this year, I am doing more wild and wonderful things. I enjoyed it last year, don't get me wrong, but a lot of my random acts of wildness were just "cycled to work" which I did everyday anyway! This year it feels more special, having collected a bunch of ideas together. My planning has been rather loose, with changing weather and circumstances, I cannot rigidly plan what I am doing for each day. But having a base of inspiration is a good place to start. Plus, if the 8th has taught me anything it's that life is always wild!

In the next fifteen days, I am hoping to do some wild yoga, make more art, and host a quiz towards the end of the month.

How have you been enjoying 30 Days Wild so far? What's been your favourite act of wildness? Have any ideas to suggest to me? Are you going to try any of mine? Lemme know, below!

Listening to: Fairy Music