Early Ventures Out in Lockdown: Memorable Adventure Number 1: Isaac's 7th Birthday Cycle Ride to Wickham and Back through 100 acre woods.

It was like entering a strange new shaky world where everything had closed. Only one week since school had been closed and Isaac's birthday party cancelled. We were allowed to exercise once a day but should we? Who might we meet? How many hundreds of times would we need to wash our hands afterwards. We had a pleading request from one of the children to cycle to the sweet shop. The weather was still quite brisk but off we headed.

It was not the village we were used to! Imagine in all the times since it was 13th century market place that trading has taken place and now most things were closed and locked down. The Pages' Sweetie Shop was closed. As it was Isaac's special day I took him as my one partner into the Co-op and chose some sweets for the others with him. 

We joined the railway line at Wickham and made our way onwards to cross over to Hundred Acre wood. It was a really long journey to our 3 kids. Isaac decided he didn't really want to go cycling on his birthday again! His bike is just a starter bike and has no gears. I was very proud that he kept going though.

After cycling through hundred acres (lifting bikes over gates etc to get there from railway line) We took a new way back to our home in North Boarhunt along the Old Oak Trail. It was lined with gorse and sandy heathland on the entrance. This was a little too exotic for our cold, tired children who were now desperate to be home eating birthday cake. We made it though. And luckily the vast quantities of chocolate robot cake that had been planned for a party that restored the tired 3 children. This will be memorable as our first lockdown bike ride where we met no-one in the first wood and spring was still in winter's grasp.

COOMBE ABBEY

It has been weeks now since we made last family day outing by car. Weeks. This was the day after my younger brother's wedding when we were staying at Brownsover Hall. A couple of weeks later the country was in lockdown from Coronavirus. How lucky we were to visit this haunt of my childhood before this happened! I mainly visited Coombe Abbey with my Dad and another of my brothers on weekend visits. We loved the birdwatching hide (which still exists). I also loved the tall Redwood trees and the exploration walks. The site has been developed to include a cafe, visitor centre and Go Ape Adventure but otherwise remains the Coombe Abbey of my childhood with all its amazing wild birds. The most important bird to see here is the Grey Heron. There is a wonderful Heronry and we took great pleasure in finding their nests dotted about in trees.What a beautiful part of Coventry and Warwickshire!

Weather for Newts!

After many days of warm, sunny weather we have rainfall today and a good chance to reflect on the lockdown wildlife in my blog. The robin's have left the nest and probably the fledglings are sheltering in the shadows somewhere. I have my suspicions the robins are starting a second brood with one of my neighbours (or maybe it's even another pair!). We have been in lockdown for 6 weeks but to me it has actually gone quickly and we've not been bored with cycling, gardening, art, music, trying to do "school" and increase online social skills. I was very happy on Sunday to discover that my husband had found tiny newts sheltering under bricks in our garden. I have been wondering why we didn't have many return frogs after all the froglets released two years ago and this kind of makes up for it. We only have a tiny plastic half barrel pond in a wild corner of our garden so this was an amazing surprise. On a grand cycle to Creech Woods a couple of weeks ago we discovered many adult newts catching thousands of little tadpoles in a drainage ditch. 

Happy Easter! New adventures into garden wildlife exploration. We set up a trail camera to watch a robin nesting at close quarters. It was already quite happy nesting with all the family noise around and has chosen a nice dark rafter in my shed. If I manage to upload this video it will beat decades of inertia to film wildlife which is really what I love doing. This film is showing the males passing food to the female which is a critical part of robin nesting behaviour. A robin often hatches a second brood while the male feeds the first fledglings I was interested to read in the "Birdfeeder Handbook".

Unprecedented Times

"We are living in unprecedented times" is an expression I hear a lot. On the news mainly. On emails from our now "so-near-yet-so-far" schools for the three children. My stumbling block to writing anything is sitting down at a computer and actually doing it. Great essays, poems, novels are shelved at the back of my mind. Diary entries, things I meant to tell someone... beautiful, funny observations of my children at play...they get left aside for action, the action of keeping my 3 children involved and active and the mundane tasks that keep us afloat as a family. It is Good Friday. But it isn't Easter as we know it. The business, the expense, the stress but then the great joy of going to see family by land or sea has evaporated with the word "Coronavirus." A month ago I don't think we truly had any idea how our life would be affected by this bug that seemed so sad but far away like other mystery illnesses that never touched our lives. I truly believe good will come out of keeping this blog a bit more often and share my nature observations and learning. The habitats we are observing are microhabitats in the garden and the familiar landscapes we cycle or jog through on our daily exercise. On the 19th March school was about to close and friends and acquaintances were hastily adding each other to WhatsApp groups. Friends that had shunned home learning for being "anti-social" were thrown into it and other friends who were already home learning were about to face a "lock-down" preventing them from their social groups and organised museum visits etc. I always fell between both camps. We decided not to home educate but there's more to life than school and now we were about to discover what we have on our doorstep to offer our children. On the 19th March a warbler, oblivious to these great, human changes decided to hop into my garden. I think it is a Chiffchaff and shared it on I-spot. Whether someone will confirm this I don't know. Either way it came so close to my kitchen window I took this photograph. Birds don't have boundaries during human lockdown. They face great challenges on migration and yet an innate urge to move pushes them forwards. The national symbol of a rainbow is used to promote hope in this time. My symbol will always have a bird flying over it!

I hadn't meant to be prophetic at New Year about it being "sink or swim" time for the human species but as I write today we are experiencing a global pandemic called Covid-19 novel virus. I have many emotions about effectively being now quarantined (without being sick) to protect our older generation. In February we had the chance to visit a wonderful houseplant exhibition in Wisley and it set myself and husband off into a wonder-world of designing our house deco with more greenery inside. It gave me a focus, a route out of feeling pessimistic. Now I will be looking at the plants we chose with each other and brought home for many a long hour until a vaccine is developed our the societal systems adjust. This blog was meant to be about all the environments I've lived or worked in on my great adventure in life. Now at this reflective rather than "haven't got time to write this" stage I looked back on my life as truly blessed, as a brief rainbow flashing through a dark, stormy sky then disappearing and not knowing how it will be re-formed. I, myself say prayers for my family, my extended family amongst whom some were already grieving for loved ones before the coronavirus hit. I try not to dwell on "when will I see them again now? Will I travel like I did before again?" and see that being here in my rambling, gardened house is great fortune and the time I will have with my children an un-forseen blessing. For six months we have been trying to reduce our single use plastic use and created a few good habits such as making bread, yoghurt and careful recycling that have made us a lot better prepared for this than we would have been last year.

It is my first post for this year, this decade 2020. It seems to be "Sink or Swim" time for the human species. We will sink into the abyss covered over by the roaring inferno of human-accelerated climate change unless drastic action is taken.

The infinite wonder and possibilities of Wilding the Kids...

Hi, We're back! The image above is the seabed between Bryher and Tresco on the Isles of Scilly where we walked at nearly-lowest tide in April...a chance of a lifetime for all of us. It was exciting in January to consider human adventure and peril in the sea visiting a submarine tank but now it is June! Already! How many gardeners just didn't sow all their seeds in time to get veggies in October?...I for one remembered to sow flowers with my toddler but forgot some other well-laid plans in the excitement! June is a Wild Adventure and support of children and families in nature! Yesterday I took my boys Geocaching for the first time. It might not seem PC in the "cut out plastic" age to traipse around the countryside looking for sealed Tupperware boxes abandoned in wild places but it got us out there in nature and it was tougher than we imagined though it gave the youngest a thrill and the older kids a massive appetite on return and we also had the satisfaction of finding 3 caches in a row once we'd driven a little further from our home territory. By the end of the day we had learnt to walk calmly through a cow field, walk at an angle by a stream bed, fall over in long grass and how to use the magnetic compass I now had installed on my mobile after a bit of trial-and-error. There are families out there doing this as second-nature but I'd had so many other things to do with them butterflies surveys, etc. etc. It was the idea of treasure that enticed them but they hadn't realised that finding caches sometimes can be an expert job left to people with tree-climbing "equipment" or that sometimes the clues might not work or you might not guess them! We traipsed into a little wood near us to try and spot such a cache up high but accidentally left behind a PLASTIC runner's water bottle ...an essential now for mummy running around (I can't easily do this with my larger aluminium one). With three kids I really do have my hands-full sometimes. I realised later we'd left it when we'd stopped to snack and asked my husband to return  and get it down the road. His answer was "We need to get the kids in bed first". I needed enough light to find it so, after wiping up the kitchen and getting the kids upstairs to shower I popped out. It was nearly 8:30 pm actually maybe after-dusk- and so I waved at neighbours than found myself re-tracing steps into a darkening woodland. To my relief I found the water bottle. No-one really goes that way much. As I turned to head back I heard a rustle, a very loud rustle. I realised it was near a badger sett! I suddenly made myself invisible and stood watching. I pressed "record" on my mobile camera. In less than two minutes I was rewarded by 2 adult badgers emerging and going off to look for food. My first ever low-resolution but clear video of wild badgers. I was so happy with this double success that I'd not even looked for! When I got back I pushed open the door of my toddler's room despite "hssh and go away" mutters from husband who was settling him. "Ok you can finish it off" said my husband. Within 5 minutes 2 other "sleeping" children were clustered around me on the toddler duvet watching my video of a dark wood intently. They were delighted I'd filmed badgers and not ghosts to show them. We all went to bed late but very happy. This is our Wild Life! I would love to take them on a badger or night wildlife expedition with me one day but life is very much spontaneous and unplanned more than a day ahead when they are so young. Stay with us to see what we get up to! Pema x

Back from the deep...

last year we had a rest from "30 Days Wild" but we did #staywild and I have a number of 3 boys in nature videos to prove it. We saw some things for the first time: wood mice fleeing the nest in our garden, a fossil shark's tooth found at Waldringfield to name but a couple. But it's time to get back into the blogging once again. Boys are aged 2, 5 and 8 and have a steady diet of books about the sea, adventure and wildlife. Oldest 2 boys have a reasonably solid treehouse in our garden. Youngest boy can collect eggs from his chicken without breaking them. We were very privileged and lucky to explore a new place on Sunday called "Fort Blockhouse" by invitation with a very experienced submariner who has been called up on many occasions for the rescue of submarines that have met trouble and trained many crew to learn how to escape in emergencies. We found ourselves peering down into SETT, a submarine escape training tank. We were also humbled to learn of the submarine heritage, the perils and the dangers that faced crew and how they were read their last rites in the chapel at "HMS Dolphin now Blockhouse" before they ventured into the abyss on dangerous submarine missions. Back on dry land we took part as we have done for 4 years in the "Great British Birdwatch" now in its 40th year. As usual it was non-compulsory and the youngest 2 children gave me about 20mins each of their concentration span counting birds before wandering off to play. Oldest child is into his own projects these days but has been intrigued and extremely vigilant on recent family walks to Titchfield Haven and Farlington Marshes. This winter we have seen many different kinds of wintering ducks including Wigeon, Pintail and more recently some Red-breasted Mergansers out on the sea at Hill Head. I will leave this post with a fab bedtime story: "Shark Lady" https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2693129595?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Day 30# 30 DaysWild Where town meets wild shingle 3 little explorers took their dreams and hopes up to the skies with a toy glider. We have explored our patches more than ever, kept in touch the best we can and now we are making lists including our shopping list (bat detector and moth trap) and reserves we have yet to visit with Hampshire Iow Wildife Trust list keeping the best until last this summer! www.wildlifemaritime.blogspot.com

completed rose garden now in bloom

snapshot from just after planting bare root roses in bed

Poet's wife

Boscobel

Lark Ascending

Munstead Wood

Open Arms

2 froglets.

Just a day gardening with our baby.

Rain cannot dampen our wildness!

I spend the baby's morning nap writing up my wildlife story about an Owl who got lost in a flood and entering data from my butterfly survey. I like rainy days for catching up with myself and doing things I wouldn't do in hot weather.  Having said that, once Jamie back from school we did exactly what we did on the hottest day in June: went for  an excursion for clean tadpole water from the stream. We currently have tiny tadpoles in the tank, 2 emerging froglets in a wash basin with things to climb out on and several larger tadpoles in another wash up bowl. We were the only people by the stream today! No dogs, only fishes for company. We got a bit cold and wet though after only a banana rather than a four course picnic for a snack.

Day 27 was about enjoying the raindrops on the roses. We were watching tadpoles and at bedtime my eldest chose a fantastic story from school about 2 children who get told off for a hole in the garden that has actually been made by a badger!

Days 24 -26 #30Days Wild: Woodpeckers, Butterflies, Streams and Friends.

I thought weather had broken over the weekend but today was a gorgeous sunny, warm day without too much wind and so I took the baby out for our butterfly transect walk. We only met one other person at the end of the walk. The freedom and joy of hiking through the long grass as clouds of butterflies few up was unparalleled. There were many small skippers about and I caught a glimpse of swallows perching on wires. I have separated 6 near froglets and several larger tadpoles from the many in the tank that is now topped up with stream water we collected again from the river in an impromptu after-school picnic.

A large skipper now amongst many other butterflies on Speltham

swallows on wires

Goat's Beard

The oldest kids have reached a "river island"

The perilous crossing on stepping stones to reach the island

Swathes of Meadowsweet

One of the best things about day 26 of our random acts of wildness was bumping into our friend with her young toddler who is a similar age to my youngest. She has just moved into the village where we go to the stream and we offered to show her our secret wild place. Her baby can toddle very fast and is "on the go" compared to our baby who is still just crawling and sitting and dependant on us to show him the water. It was a great exercise for my older children to show which parts of the river and stream were suitable for the little boy to paddle in holding his mum's hand. We also shared our wild thoughts and picnic. I've mentioned before in commenting on others' blogs that sometimes we need a friend or other people to engage in nature around us. "Wild" does not have to mean "solitary"

We spent most of Sunday having dinner at a friend's house in town so today my post is of a book I started reading which has amazing descriptive wild powers. It is "H" is for Hawk.

I had let the day fly by in a whirl of indoor children's sports: swimming, gym badge day. Little heed paid to a nature activity. And as I contemplated my lack of wildness at the kid's bedtime we spotted not one but three juvenile green woodpeckers in our garden. One had landed on the hammock frame. I don't have a good telephoto lense to capture such a sight but it is ingrained on my memory forever. Wonderful!

Spot the baby woodpecker from the window!