The super-hot weather has continued and we have tadpoles metamorphosing into froglets which is keeping me up late at night thinking around a whole lot of wild issues. Do I now have too many tadpoles in the tank? Have they got enough food? Are they going to eat each other's tails before I get around to sinking a shallow barrel into the wild area for their release? Should I have already given them back to the friend who gave the tadpoles to us to add to their pond? And so on. There are some helpful sites like Frog Life with the correct advice. There are also some supportive sites such as mumsnet where tadpole-keeping mummies can relate their life/death tadpole events to each other. I can feel a trip back to the clean river water and some serious digging in my garden beckoning for tomorrow. Tonight I stepped outside, looked up at the stars and breathed. I could hear a Tawny Owl calling in the distance. I said a silent prayer for the froglet that remains still in the tank and for the young Great Tits I can hear in our log nesting box then went back in.
Today was a special treat day for the boys as it was Father's Day. I'd booked the 9am Hovercraft and organised picnic items so that we could head over to the Isle of Wight for a long hot day. As we got into the car to head on to Portsmouth I noticed that most of our bare root roses in the new front garden bed have come into bloom for Father's Day! Our weeding and nurturing is paying off! We left our car all day at Clarence Pier and had an amazing hover over the Solent. On arrival we took the Southern Vectis Bus from Ryde to Newport and then another bus on to Yarmouth. Once in Yarmouth, using our Day Rover Ticket we took the open-top tour bus called "The Needles Breezer" all the way to the Needles New and Old Battery where we enjoyed our lunch with outstanding views and wildlife. This is the only time I've been to the Needles with the sea like glass, hardly any wind!
 |
| Beetle on thrift - to be identified (gold and green/shiny!) |
Remember earlier in June we took a train to see a jellyfish? Well we are out-doing ourselves now. We had walked back from the Needles to the Alum Bay stop to admire wildlife and jetskis, nipped back on the tour bus and walked a little way from the main road to the beach at Colwell. Within 5 minutes of me changing into a swimming costume inside our tiny beach shelter I heard excited screams "mum get out of the tent ...LOOK it's a jellyfish! Mum, this boy's catching it for us". And so in a yellow bucket the poor dead beast was displayed upside down. I think it's a compass jellyfish from it's distinctive markings. And, this one does really sting. Again, no-one had thought to touch it!
 |
| Compass Jellyfish |
 |
| The Needles Breezer Bus we took to our picnic |
I'm proud of the way my whole family co-operated with the bus time-tables and our ideas for wild things on our day out. I'm also very impressed with the bus operator for never having to wait more than 5 minutes for our connecting bus.
 |
| The Beach Shelter we had carried rolled up under the baby carrier by bus. Essential with 3 young kids. |
The main opportunity for wildlife was some time in the garden before my 6yr old went to a friend's party. I bought him a notebook from the supermarket but he didn't want to wait for me to supervise him nature journaling and so stuck in this representation of a flower sketched while I was elsewhere hanging out washing. The spellings are a bit suspect, the card a bit ripped but I'm very proud of him for taking the initiative to do his own wild thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment