30 Days Wild Day 25 & Day 26 Silence is Golden

Day 25

Went to Kilbroney Forest (Rostrevor) to meet with our church family for a BBQ. Hubby and I were early, so he drove to the top picnic spots so I got a lovely view of the forests around us.

 I had to take a selfie, couldn't help myself.

Had a lovely BBQ with my friends and my son had been out on his Sunday School Trip without us as I wasn't well enough to go. So he was out in the wild all day and evening. He was so wrecked we had a very emotional 11 year old at the end of the day. On our way back I saw a whole lot of cotton balls in the valley fields and stopped to take a photo. Hubby said it was locally called bog cotton, so it was either 'common cotton grass' or 'hare's tail cotton grass'. However to me it looks like the lambs have left their tails behind them. The drive through the vale was awesome as the mountainous forests towered above us us on both sides.

Day 26

Today we officially switched off from the internet, computers, tablets and mobiles. I had withdrawal symptoms first thing in the morning as I usually check a few things and see if I've any Facebook messages. We all found it a very difficult challenge.

We headed out for the day to meet up with a friend at her church and then we went for a fab lunch.

As we came home in the afternoon we did a quick bird survey as we were arriving home, so we saw 2 blackbirds with their undeniable bright beaks and we also saw 2 sets of magpies  (5 all together).

It was a cold wet evening and hubby lit a fire. We read two chapters of a book aloud together. Dad and son built a Lego character together while I did some of my puzzle book.
Birds were a wee bit quiet on it so I opened the door, stood in the drizzle and listened to my usual bird-song.
We finished the night off by playing board games and discussing how it would be a good idea to switch off once every week. Ideal outcome of the day for us as a family to be honest.

The following are some thoughts I had today.

It was hard to listen to the quiet, and we almost panicked at the silence at times. We discussed how distracting media is. Switching off is hard to do even when you know its good for you.Why do we fill our lives with stuff that has no positive impact on our lives?
Instead we need to stop, switch off, listen, quiet ourselves, take a deep breathe and think how precious life is for the ladybird as much as us.