Day16 #30DaysWild: Born to be free: Our wonderful release!

 I stayed up far too late last night writing about the slugs we attempted to make on day 15 which were very engaging but very messy and made me debate whether the idea was worth publishing (I did anyway). This morning I was very soundly asleep when two boys jumped on me in bed at 7am shouting "mummy, mummy get up we've got a mouse in a box" "huh? eer what?". "We've rescued a mouse with papa" "Can we keep it as a pet?" "MUMMY get UP you have to see it?".

 I went downstairs to find two half-eaten childrens' breakfasts and a poor little mouse huddled next to some muesli flakes in an empty PG tips box which still had sequins stuck on it from pre-school junk modelling. I quizzed my husband. The mouse had been found on our staircase alive looking scared. Maybe our cat had brought it in but not killed it. I suspect it may have let itself in when one of the children left our outside door open. I explained to the boys that it was a wild animal and it wouldn't be fair for us to keep it as a pet (which has what the tadpoles seem to have become to them....but they also understand this will change when they are frogs). I also explained that mummy had to release the mouse quietly as it looked quite frightened and mice and small birds can have heart attacks if they are in such a scary situation. The boys were happy with this idea and watched me through the window. I took the box right up to our hedgerow with long grass at the back of our garden and gently turned it over so the mouse was facing the hedge. I dug out my reader's digest mammals book as Jamie, my 6 yr old wanted to "investigate the mouse, what it eats, where it lives and its name". We decided it was a Wood Mouse.

A creature that Isaac my 4 year old particularly likes is a snail. When we are looking for butterflies he is really looking for snail shells and if they are empty he puts them in my bag. If they are alive he talks to them and makes sure I don't squash them by accident.

 I took the baby and Isaac to Southampton today as a special treat to hear classical music for babies in a church. Randomly we arrived on the last day of an art trail of giant snails on what is grandly termed the "esplanade" but which really is the outside of a large mall called West Quay. We viewed them from the old city walls.

It is very late as I write this but I want you to know that Isaac spent a good half hour tadpole feeding and watching today. He discovered only one tadpole has arms AND legs and starting changing into a frog. He named it but the name was so random I can't remember it (Hafalak or something). He took a piece of kindling from my woodshed and put it in the tank instinctively for the frog to have a "log" to hop on. We also found that the tadpoles were absolutely starving and eating the meaty food rather than the lettuce today so they must be at the next stage. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. I'm finding this #30DaysWild challenge getting very exciting.

Day 15 #30DaysWild: Idea Warning: Make a slimy slug instead of a fairy door...

It's a flower, mushroom and hedgehog mummy!

1. Clay
Its hot again today and focus has been on my 4 year old who not only has been practicing independent gymnastics at a club but also had a stay and play session at the school he'll start in September. When my eldest got home from school we decided to do some craft. I obtained a wooden fairy door for the kids to paint from a well-known discount store some time ago and that's what we'd planned to do but magically it disappeared (only to re-appear later) just when we wanted to paint it. I delved around the shelves and found 2 wild mediums that would appeal individually to my two older boys. The first was terracotta air-dry clay. They loved this. Jamie my 6 year old created a flower, a mushroom and a hedgehog (above) while Isaac said "I made nothing" with a big smile on his face while stabbing a ball of clay with a pencil.

2. Slime

Out  of Jamie and Isaac we have a slime-o-phobic child and a slime-a philic child. I discovered that Jamie is a slime-o-phobic child when we got invited to a 6 year olds hands-on science party where they had to make slime...he could not bear to touch it! His brother is the opposite and if he sees something slimy he needs to touch it...just demonstrating how completely different kids can be. Consider that while making a slimy slug for #30DaysWild was mummy's brave award winning original idea (inspired by a science pack) and while at least one of my kids would comply, it really should be shelved and NEVER printed on an idea card. Why? Because I can guarantee that although most kids would love it it would be sheer torture for a precious few to even watch their parent make a slug. Also for several other reasons I later discovered.The slime I used was in a pack that I'd bought second hand at a nearly new baby sale (you heard correctly: came home with babygrows, new pyjamas and a horrible science make a slug kit...). The slime had uncongealed itself and slipped out of the slug mould into a giant mess. It didn't look like a slug to me but a dripping monster from startrek. In five minutes I got it on my shorts, on the wooden table I hadn't properly covered, on my baby's babygrow where I was holding him away at a distance to watch. The kids shrieked in happy disgust and worked out which toys they were going to use to kill my slime-monster. It went in the bin against all my principles of sustainability and I have not got the wildness in me this evening to make the "top-up" slime suggested in the pack using PVA glue, cornflour and food colouring. Not today folks!

Day 14 #30DaysWild: a nature story at kid's bedtime 13 # gardening and butterflies (again)

 It was so hot today and the baby was still under the weather from teething/virus that I decided to stay at home and garden with just one trip out after school to GP for baby. I got "curry pasty mix" out of the freezer thanks to my 4 year old's prompting and let it de-thaw on the garden table. Later I made some shortcrust pasty and we had a pasty and salad picnic in our garden. The kid's had got really excited with the paddling pool out under their climbing frame slide to toboggan into. I realised that none of day had been especially wild, just lazy and hanging around mainly so I got Nicola Davis's "My first Nature Book" out for a treat at bedtime. Love the spring tadpole section. My bilingual children were stumped when I asked them what a tadpole was in French: it is têtard. I have bribed them to remember and repeat it another time to their french father.

What I am most excited about in June, especially in this warm weather is the abundance and blooming of roses. I am very excited that most of the bare root roses in our new front garden bed look just ready to bloom in time for father's day.

Albertine Rose rambling in our garden

 Baby Art chose to help me in the garden today. I have a lot of plants and seedlings placed temporarily above our well cover and he likes nothing more to try and get them out of the pots!

 I have started to plant out seedlings in earnest. I felt very happy to get this small frame of runner beans set up.

 First Large skippers have emerged on Speltham Down. Had to go back to photo and identify as I wasn't sure if they were small skippers or not as it's a year since I last saw any, especially as one I spotted had deformed wings. Aaggh! Butterflies!

 On the return trip with camera and 3 boys accompanying me. Jamie (6) my oldest pointed out this ladybird.

 I let them choose their own routes and they found their usual tree swing and did "rocket blasters" on it.

The skipper butterfly that confused me!

Country Park to Wildly Calm the Teething Baby

 When I decided to take part in #30DaysWild Baby Art started grumbling frequently day and night about his teeth coming through. He was so cross with a cold this morning I got together with a friend at similar wit's end and we decided fresh air and distraction was the order of the day...so Manor Farm Country Park it was.

What amazing thing has Art spotted that made him forget to moan at me about waiting to gain entry to farm.

A knitted Wild/Farm Animal...Knock me down with a feather I would never have looked there if he hadn't pointed

 Out of the pushchairs all the kids happy and engaged

 Goats are the most interesting creatures

 Grown piglets that we watched being born on our last visit 25th May - including the drama where we watched a piglet being resuscitated...do you think it was that one looking up at us curiously?

Totally distracted from the teething thanks to the outdoors and his mates...light at the end of the tunnel for tired mummy.

#30DaysWild Day 11 Picnic by the River

 Around 1pm after a morning of gardening and playing there was great excitement. We had announced to the older two boys that we were going on a late lunch picnic to the river at Droxford. Here they are pictured beside my new hamper/anniversary present. We took the pushchair, changing bag, buckets, towels, swim stuff for older boys and of course a couple of trains for the baby. We soon realised that my husband had never been to this particular spot before although I've taken the boys there on many a boiling hot day after school in summer and also of course for the tadpole water expeditions.

 With the picnic hamper it was a very civilised affair in a very beautiful wild place. The usual car park by the church was full so we parked further away near the recreation ground and school then walked down past the church, turned right over the gravestone path then left and onwards to the kissing gate and little bridge over the river. We lifted our pushchair over in parts. Samuel had packed a good picnic that included 3 days of our strawberry crops from home with UHT double cream to eat them with and houmous sandwiches with extra Nutella ones for desert.

 My oldest was very interested in helping me catch fish with the buckets. I saw and pointed out 2 sticklebacks but they were too fast to catch and we just caught a few small fry. Jamie, my oldest had his wild moment spotting a Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly. Isaac, my 4 year old was much less interested in fish but completely absorbed in a small patch of mud where he could add more bucket water and mess about it.

 At the start of the picnic there were a few families about throwing balls to huge dogs that were bounding around in the stream. After a while they left and it was just us and the wildlife.

Before we went home all three kids burnt off some energy at the playground. The perfect end to a randomly wild day.

Day 10 of #30DaysWild - how a country fete made us go wild!

This will be a count-back post...life has been so full of nature we barely got time to write more than a couple of Facebook posts in #30DaysWild. I am full of admiration for the semi-professional photographers, writers that are keeping their blogs up-to-date and gaining likes by the bucket load. I have a teething baby with a cold that doesn't understand blogging. He just understands the separation anxiety of mummy leaving the room to go on a computer (If I try using my mobile he grabs it and sticks it in his mouth so that's a no-no!)

Anyway, today the oldest children paid the princely sum of 50p each at a local fete to make their own identical flower arrangements to present me with and told me I was the best mummy in the world (Mothers day  x 2 this year it seems). They aren't even wild really but absolutely beautiful so I have to show them.
I also have to explain that the wild bit  about today is what our garden does when we leave it alone for five minutes to go to other things or take holiday with the kids.

I made a good attempt at weeding the front garden where I've planted new roses this year. I enjoy this, even though it is a job that never gets finished. I can keep my eyes on a huge oak tree opposite the road from us which occasionally reveals a Great Spotted Woodpecker by day and a Tawny Owl by night. The love and attention I've devoted to the front while casual birdwatching has meant that the back is becoming it's own wildlife haven. A few weeks back I planted rows of chard, carrot and rocket seeds next to a potato patch with a kid's help but a Borage plant I bought from a green fair at the sustainability centre 2 years ago has self- seeded and now we have this:

One bedraggled rocket plant and one chard seedling has survived slug attack...but for how long? The carrot seeds never worked (maybe they were too old). But does any of the failed vegetable seeds matter when I have this beautiful crop of purple borage flowers that I can freeze in ice-cubes to decorate summer drinks? And best of all Bees love them. Speaking of bees lets go back to day 9:

Day 9 was a Friday, one of my precious last full home-days before my 4 year old starts big school in September. And so in his honour I scouted sites about nature scrapbooking and found this amazing activity to do: hammering flowers. It was easy. Get a hammer out of the shed (or a smaller toy one if you aren't sure your child is capable). Pull out some printer paper out of your printer or any plain paper will do. Sandwich some freshly plucked flowers from your garden between the sheets outside on a hard table or surface. You are not going to press them. This is not for the faint-hearted. The aim of this activity is to make A COMPLETELY RANDOM WILD PATTERN. So, you get hammering. If you are an adult you can go for it. If you are supervising a child let them tap carefully away then when they have waned in interest pick the hammer up and take out your frustrations on those poor flowers. Now get the child back in view, lift the paper up and TA-DA you have RANDOM WILD FLOWER EXPLOSION PRESERVED FOREVER!

After the flower hammering I decided to keep up the happy vibe and mow the lawn for my husband (since I was last pregnant it has been his chore to do) and get fit. Not a wild thing at all until you consider my approach to the task. The lawn has been neglected for at least three weeks and has turned into a beautiful yellow composite flower meadow with clovers and is covered with buzzing bees etc. Please don't ask me what it's name of the yellow flower is...a baby dandelion? Should I give it a name really if I'm about to decimate it with a machine? I don't want to deprive the bees but if I leave it another weekend our lawn mower won't cut it. It has to be mowed. Quick, because if I don't it will rain again and the kids won't have anywhere to play but long soggy grass. I decide to do two things differently to my husband. 1. Lift the lawnmower cutter to highest level to leave a few flowers and grass bit longer 2. Leave some of the wildflowers at the edges and around trees for a bit longer or until my husband finds where I've hidden the strimmer. A happy wild compromise.

The simple pleasures: I picked 2 bowls of strawberries from our garden and listened to a male goldfinch singing. Recently I have also watched Starlings nesting in the neighbours roof with the baby pointing and explaining in babbles. I added this to the Facebook #30DaysWild group so I couldn't be caught slacking on this blog! Now can't find where the photo I chose is though so you have to imagine those delicious berries.

Wind in the willows and blown-in butterflies

A painted lady on a Scabious plant I put in last year

Common spotted orchid dodging...

A red-tailed bumblebee on Speltham Down

Oldest Son showing Wild Art giraffe made of stones and buttercups modelled on baby's toy

More than 2 years ago I wove my own willow fence with kid's help to support a struggling hedgerow

My overgrowing garden and established hedge still supported by willow frame on Day 9 of #30DaysWild which coincidentally is my 9 yrs wedding anniversary i.e. my willow anniversary!

With the weather being so gusty and the ground too wet to mow I wasn't sure what would turn up today. I stepped outside the front door before lunch and was rewarded with the first ever sighting I have made in my garden of a painted lady butterfly which was feeding near a bee much to the pleasure of my 4 year-old. After lunch, inspired by this one sighting we headed up the down to do a butterfly transect, that is myself with baby in backpack and 4 yr old Isaac. We counted a few meadow browns and dodged hundreds of common spotted orchids that lay in our path. Towards the end of our survey it was really too windy so we went home to meet my oldest boy Jamie. Jamie had his own idea for a wild thing to do and quietly got on with the giraffe picture while I brought in washing. I didn't have to cook dinner as my husband was bringing take-away to celebrate our "willow" anniversary with the kids. I decided not to buy him a "willow" gift as everytime I fancied one of those posh willow picnic hampers he's made noises about how they weren't practical so instead I got him chocolate marzipans and a card. Just for the willow bit I've been posting him photos of our joint effort garden creation (he cut and helped me place the hazel stakes I wove the willow into). P.S Anyhow, needn't have worried about a special anniversary present...husband turned up with the takeaway AND a willow picnic hamper for me! (he said phew ..you didn't buy one for me then!)