30dayswild wood

It’s the final week, in fact the final day of the 2020 30 Days Wild challenge. For me it’s been pretty much a washout.

To review the final week first…

Monday: I did the round up of the previous week.

Tuesday: I have no idea what I was doing on Tuesday, save possibly for finishing the decorating and/or putting the guinea pig run into its new configuration. Oh, and I also finished putting in the wildflower plants I’d bought. The last four specoes [prefer it dry, so they went in the upper garden, in a space near the birdbath where I’m going to let the grass grow taller.

Wednesday I was probably unpacking boxes. And reading Meadowland. I was doing that on Tuesday, too. One thing I did notice: my compost heap has shrunk. The worms I added must be enjoying themselves!

Thursday. Maybe I finished Meadowland.  It was cold and wet that day so nothing much else happened.

Friday. Who knows? I’d finished Meadowland by then, anyway. Oh, my raised bed kit came for the vegetable patches. Not exactly wild, though.

Saturday I reviewed Meadowland, which is probably my one genuine #30DaysWild event of the week.

white clover and buttercupSunday. I had a tea party, and I showed the wild garden off to the girls.  I didn’t do a good job of enthusing them, since they weren’t riveted. But they do now know the difference between buttercups and marsh marigold. Although they’re right, if you just had the flower, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference.

Monday. I recovered from the party. Eventually I got out for a walk, which was followed by a spot of bramble and horsetail pulling up. It was very windy, so hardly anything flying around.

So that brings us to today.

Reflections of 2020’s #30DaysWild

I think if you have a generally high level of awareness of birds, bees and other things in your garden, it’s pretty hard to sustain thirty days of wildness in a lockdown situation. Whatever size the random acts are. It seems too much like ‘but I do that anyway’.

The most successful 30Days… for me have been when I planned things in advance, and did things out of my usual routine. At this stage of the event I’m thinking ‘maybe it isn’t for me’. But looking back on some of the terrific days out I had, like the writers’ days (which were in fact in 2015!), or the trip to see the Swallowtail and the Norfolk Hawker, or the Swift Awareness course, or the Clay bird Workshop at Cley… well, as you can see, they are memorable even now! I got a lot out of those, and I learned something from most of them, too.  Even the Random Act of sea paddling during the mid part of my bird survey at Winterton… very memorable, and really wild.

So, do I have to do something ‘different’ to make the challenge worthwhile?  It seems so.

There are things I planned to do, could have done, but haven’t.  I haven’t made the insect hotel… yet. That’s been on the list for a couple of years now, and I even collected some stuff for it during my move this year. So maybe I’ll build it before the summer’s out. I meant to redo my bat and insect survey. Well, the weather this week meant it was not a fair comparison.  The honeysuckle smells wonderful, and should be attracting insects by the ton, but it’s too windy for most of them. That’s my assumption, since there’s very little about, and no bats I can detect.

But I did repeat the Gardenwatch soil survey, and I can begin to compare the wild things in my garden with the wild things in my old garden. It’s a start.

On to 2021?

All this can be done next year. Hopefully the coronavirus will be behind us and we’ll be struggling with other things.  Supporting wild spaces sounds lik it could be high priority for us Brits next year.  30 Days Wild could be more important than ever. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, we can be wild all year round – #Staywild.

#30DaysWild | Final week round-up and reflections
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5 thoughts on “#30DaysWild | Final week round-up and reflections

  • 30 June, 2020 at 6:22 pm
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    It is a challenge to make it seem special when you are always doing things like that! But I think a little extra consciousness is not a bad thing.

    • 30 June, 2020 at 9:20 pm
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      You’re right, and I did do some things I might not otherwise have done 🙂

  • 30 June, 2020 at 8:54 pm
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    I think as you’ve had so many other things to cope with after your move, not to mention lockdown, you shouldn’t feel bad about it not being as successful as you hoped.

    • 30 June, 2020 at 9:22 pm
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      Thanks, Mary. I tell myself that, and think about time I’ve wasted, but really, I think lockdown is getting to me at the moment. Even though were supposed to be coming out of it, which I, and many of my more knowledgeable friends, think is a great mistake. I try to follow the Scottish advice 🙂

  • 30 June, 2020 at 9:51 pm
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    One thing I should have commented on: I’ve been watching the Lock Arkaig Osprey nest throughout the month (and before). The three youngsters are doing fine and are nearly the size of their mother, but still quite wobbly. They have the full head plumage of an Osprey now, and look very handsome. The father has been doing an excellent job of delivering fish, and the comments discuss his productivity, the state of the fish, and what he and the female take for themselves, among many other interesting things 🙂
    It’s also fun to see how much lighter it is up there in the Highlands than here in the south of England.
    https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam/

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