Day 16 - Wild Families on The Roaches

I'm all up to date with my blog posts at last and had a good, wild day today :)

This weekend is The Wildlife Trusts 'Big Wild Weekend', as part of 30 Days Wild, so there have been all kinds of wildplay type things happening today and there are many more tomorrow (but I'm not working tomorrow!).

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/big-wild-weekend

I spent all day on Home turf, playing wild on The Roaches.

The day began with some heavy rain so I dusted off the waterproof trousers but around 10:30 the rain eased and it held off all day. We were very lucky actually, It rained literally right next to us but didn't get us and then it just got drier and the sun appeared towards the end. Aimee (my boss) was so pleased not to have to take a wet shelter and tarps away and have to dry them out in the office.

Activities today were the usual things (except fire - the moors are a fire risk at the moment and there have already been a few fires locally, so we can't do fire as others may see it and think it's ok to do the same). We had bug hunting, clay, den building, mud kitchen, a scavenger hunt, binoculars, making butterfly feeders, planting seeds, hammocks, the slackline and of course, rocks to climb over and sticks to play with - plenty to do! We also had a 30 Days Wild activity bingo - complete all the activities for a sticker - things like wear a flower in your hair, feel grass beneath your toes... 9 tasks in all.

One family spent a long time hunting for insects and came back to me with this pot. There was a wolf spider carrying babies in it and the boy was fascinated, watching them on his hand for a while (he wanted to take them home!).

A lizard (apparently!) made by one of the dads.

Snail and snake

Another dad made a bird which he said is a grouse!

A swing in the hammock, has to be done!

 The rain held off and the sun came out towards the end for a little while which meant we could rinse and dry the mud kitchen and mud paint kit rather than packing away soggy items that then have to be unpacked and washed at the office.

It was a really good day with around 15 children plus their adults attending (which is good considering it was quite cold for most of the day with rain locally - though not actually on us!). Many of them stayed for the whole session (11am-3pm) and some even outstayed us after we'd packed away and left! The children were lovely - a good age range and children that really engaged with everything and just had a great time outdoors. I love sessions like that :)



On day 16 last year I was in the garden again, the year before it was 'Tadpole Thursday' - they had legs! In 2015 I took a new camera out to play on the moors.