Wow, it feels like June has gone so fast! It feels like yesterday I updated you on how week 2 of our 30 Days Wild had gone, now here I am with week 3! This week felt a bit more challenging. I think this is partially because the weather has been inclement once again, which has somewhat limited what we can do. While I don’t mind going outside in the rain, having a young baby who hates getting rain on his face doesn’t really lend itself to that! We’ve also been doing more rewiring this week so my husband has been busy as when he hasn’t been busy with his day job he’s been helping my brother with some of the elements of that. While in a nicer world I’d happily go for a walk in the woods on my own with Autumn and Reuben to do some of the activities in mind, the harsh reality is that I can’t.
Still, here is what we’ve been doing in spite of the challenges!
Running in the rain
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Autumn! When we saw the rain starting to fall after a few days of hot weather, we dashed out to the garden to cool down. We couldn’t resist the urge to dance, run and just generally enjoy the rain – as you can see from this blur!
Made an egg carton crab
With the weather still inclement, we got crafty! We had lots of fun turning part of an egg box into a cute little hermit crab with the help of some paint, pipe cleaners, double sided sticky tape and googly eyes. He now has pride of place on Autumn’s windowsill.
Listening to sounds of nature
We went into the garden and listened hard. Unfortunately, we could hear the roads, but we could also hear some sounds of nature. Mostly the rain and birds!
Watching giraffes
The weather wasn’t very good and we’d had a busy day, but I wasn’t going to let that defeat us! I asked Autumn what sort of animal she would like to watch. Giraffes are her favourite, so naturally that was what she chose. I found a webcam for a zoo in the US where there were plenty for us to see. Every now and then someone came and fed them and we observed their long black tongues.
Cooking with rosemary
With the weather still horrible, I thought we’d do some cooking with some of the herbs we’d planted a couple of weeks ago. I got Autumn to pick some rosemary for us to use and we made homemade chips. They were seasoned to perfection and delicious! (I’m afraid I didn’t take an after picture as I was too busy eating them – oops!)
Alpaca trekking
Naturally, this was my most favourite activity of the week! One of my best friends had bought me a voucher for my birthday for us to go alpaca trekking at Lower Bush Alpacas in Cuxton, Kent. It was a lovely chilled start to Father’s Day for us and Autumn loved it. Reuben did too and seemed mesmerised by the alpacas at points! We walked the beautiful, if a little grumpy, Aubree. He’s good with small children and somehow his grumpiness added to his charm! He seemed to warm to us more as we walked and Autumn delighted in helping me feed him some carrots and giving him the occasional neck stroke.
Colour spotting
Wearing our winter coats (in June!) we went for a walk around where we live. Before we set off, I asked Autumn to choose a colour for us to look for in nature. She chose purple and we spotted all kinds of beautiful purple flowers growing in people’s gardens! We also saw some lavender growing in ours, but these were my personal favourite.
I’m quite sad that we’re this far through the month so soon! We definitely need to keep this up to some extent and spend more time in and learning about nature once we’ve completed 30 Days Wild.