#30dayswild - day 19 - a day at the woods

Today I invited loads of friends to my woods. It is something that I have been planning for ages but had never managed to get around to it. Until now!!  I am hoping it is going to be something that will happen quite often and was really pleased that 8 families made it along today and we had a great time.

I am hoping that a fellow #30dayswild-er will share some fab photos that see took via her blog here. Jenny's Gecko Wood post is here.

Any way we had a great time at the woods and as part of the #30dayswild. I had decided beforehand that I would do the following:

Today, I chose to lift up a log #30DaysWild pic.twitter.com/H6rg9Wjj6R — Viv (@vckidd) June 19, 2016

and

Today, I chose to learn who sings a favourite song #30DaysWild pic.twitter.com/l4jsfxbv0f

— Viv (@vckidd) June 19, 2016

So I learnt the descending whistle of the Willow Warbler and when I lifted a log in the woods discovered woodlice!!

As part of looking for interesting things a casing was found (which I am holding in my hand in the collage above). We thought it may be the outer casing of a stinkhorn mushroom.

There was also an egg (we think pigeon) and a stinkhorn mushroom.

I showed people around the woodland and we ate some wood sorrell and identified wild strawberries. We discovered that the area of the woods in which we want to make a pond is still boggy (top left photo) and therefore definitely does seem like a good area to make a pond in the future.

We saw loads of blackberry bushes (bottom left) which are going to be great fun to pick in Autumn.

My dd and Jenny made a den (hence the fact I will add a link to her blog post because she took loads of great photos of the transformation.) And a carved The Den sign was made (spot the associated photos).

People had a go at archery, on the zip wire, and on the slack line.

We then discovered an actually living stinkhorn (middle.) Dh had some help planting some trees that had been donated to us and harvested some elderflowers (top right.)

As well as all that there were fires, food cooked on fires, fun, and friendship. Who could ask for more?

#30dayswild day 5 - a day in the woods

Today was all about having fun in the woods. Dh gets to the woods most weeks but I prefer to go when there is a bigger group but I decided as part of the #30dayswild I thought I would go and drag ds, dd and coerce my fab bro to come with us aswell.

I thought I would also take the chance to take some pictures and cool videos. Here is one of the fabulous birdsong that you can hear when sitting in our lovely woodland.

Recently I have tried to start learning birdsong using an application on my phone. Like most people I seem to have always been able to recognise the cuckoo and pigeon. Recently I have learnt the song of the blackbird, chiffchaff and willow warbler. Today I learnt the chaffinch birdsong.

We then tested out dh's pot tripod and it worked a treat. The pot is one from Ronnie Sunshine which we bought from the Bushcraft Show 2016.

It is a 4 litre pot and I am very much looking forward to using it in the future.

At the same time we had bought a grill stand and this we did get to use for cooking lunch and making a cuppa. Listen to my kettle sing to tell me my water was ready.

My dh had even made a stick handle to pick up my kettle which worked really well and saved me having to find the fire proof gloves.


Dh then showed me the stash of stinkhorn mushrooms he had found the previous day. Our are obviously at the development stage but go here if you want to see what they are going to end up looking like although its latin name phallus impudicus might give it away if you don't know!!

I then thought I should actually try and find some wildlife myself rather than relying on my dh to have found it for me so I went hunting but I didn't have to go far until the wildlife came to me in the form of a bee.