Day 29 - A journey stick and a bug house

Day 29 was a bit of a mixed bag!

On my way home from school this afternoon, I stopped for a while to appreciate the views. It seemed so peaceful (I think it was the absence of wind!) that I just had to stop to take it in for a while.

I really do appreciate this beautiful area I live in and am thankful for having a rural drive to work, with lots of wildlife to spot along the way.

Later in the day I had to walk my mother's dog. My parents are away for a few days which means I have to temporarily become 'a dog person' and look after their dog (I don't like dogs, well, pets in general really!) so I thought since I had to walk with the dog, I might as well make the walk into my 30 Days Wild activity and decided rather than taking lots of photos as I usually do, I'd make a journey stick.

Here's the finished stick...

 

 It's a very simple concept - something I've done as a forest school and wildplay activity. Find a stick, tie some wool to one end and wrap it around the stick then take it for a walk and, as you walk, collect natural treasures to slide in beneath the wool. The idea is that after the walk, children can talk about their treasures or their journey - where they found a particular item, why they chose to add it to the stick... all sorts of conversation can arise from it (and other activities).  Obviously, this was just a bit of fun for me, I didn't have to talk to anyone about it after and it's a bit of a daft activity for an adult to do alone really - passers by must have wondered what I was doing with a stick covered in bits of nature, but I don't concern myself with such things! I rather enjoyed having two photos of a stick to represent my walk rather than 200 photos of things I saw!  This - link - leads to a PDF about journey sticks for anyone interested.

Whilst I was out, I foraged a larger stick too - a branch (from a woodpile left after some recent tree cutting).  I used that to put up the little bug box that's been sitting in the study for 5 or 6 weeks!
When I first went down the garden, I was pleased by the number of bees who were in the garden with me. There's a lot of clover in the lawn and the bees love it every year!  I see several different kinds on the clover and visiting the other flowers that grow amongst the grass too, especially the birdsfoot trefoil. I spent some time watching the bees and enjoying the flowers.

Isn't this so much more interesting and nicer looking than a pristine but boring manicured green lawn?!

Unfortunately, I just live in this house, I don't own it and I don't have much of a say over the garden so as much as I try, I can't keep the wild lawn and it'll be mown within a day or two (though the flowers and the bees will soon return - then the cycles repeats!)

Whilst installing my new bug house pole, I noticed a soldier beetle on the laurel.

There's the branch, inserted vertically next to the log pile.

and here's the little bug house.

As the garden is bordered entirely by various hedges, and the workshop already has bug homes nailed to it, I had to screw this one to a branch and stick it in the ground! Not a brilliant job (it does wobble a bit!) but I think it's adequate and this little wild patch I've negotiated is looking good! There are loads of wildflowers planted here too, but they will probably do better next year.

Tomorrow is the last day of 30 Days Wild. I have no idea what I'll be doing yet - do you have any plans for the final day?!