30 Days Wild Day 15 & 16 Cuckoo Spit

Day 15

Plenty of cuckoo spit all over this plant

I went for a walk around the garden with hubby and found lots of cuckoo spit. While hubby was doing a wee bit of weeding he pulled up a weed with cuckoo spit on it and we could see the tiny wee nymph froghopper insect. It was amazing. I showed hubby the plant in the side garden with loads of cuckoo spit on it . Excitement. we'll have froghopper insects everywhere.(or is it??)

More Cuckoo Spit

Sitting in the evening sun watching my other half mow the lawn and charging my camera battery so hoping I don't miss any photographic opportunities.

I was cloud watching with my son and at 11 he still has a wonderful imagination. We saw a dog with a funny hair cut and we saw the USS Enterprise. Its amazing what you find in the sky.

Clover Leaf

White clover, nectar for bees

We tried to whistle through a blade of grass and we had to persevere. I made the best sounds which remind me of flatulence to be honest!

We are becoming more aware of aeroplanes above us and their flight patterns which has been fun and interesting to my boy.

Hubby found a moth hiding on the lawnmower. We studied it and tried to take photos. Best guess we got from researching the Internet was a Marbled Brown.
It was a brilliant day!

Marbled Brown Moth ???

Day 16

We didn't get to do much outside today as it was raining. I did learn more about Bird Songs and I have identified the Robin's songs and calls.

It was great to see my son get so inspired by a local lady who rescues feral cats as well as abandoned cats. Our cats are all rescue cats from that lady so he really felt connected and wants to do something to fundraise for her. She rescues ferals, gets them spayed or neutered and then releases them back into the wild. She is the most kind hearted lady and always cries when a cat dies but she knows she can't save every cat she comes across. They are all treated humanely and with the utmost respect.

30 Days Wild; Day 13 & 14 Its all in the detail!

Its all in the detail!

Day 13

Trying to identify this mushroom we came across this morning. Actually it was my husband who said 'theres a mushroom up there beside the cabin you need to photograph'. I'm not sure what kind of mushroom this is but what is catching on  is this 30 days wild! 

My son loves looking throughthe microscope  Today we examined a nettle tip and a spiders leg (already dead) ; you can see even curly hairs on the spiders legs. 

Spider's leg

                                    

 What really caught his attention was the nettle, seeing the fibres on the edges and then when he saw the stinger of the nettle he was awestruck. This is obviously what I need to do to engage an 11 year old boy.

His random act of wildness was to map the garden and the wildflife. Still awaiting the finished masterpiece.

Nettle tip

I think the birds are almost talking to me now, just love hearing them and seeing them, but they seem to be singing louder or maybe thats because i am noticing them more.
I was reflecting today about the experience with my son in seeing the nettle tip for the first time. The awe and wonder in his eyes is often something we as adults don't allow ourselves to unleash. We tie ourselves up in knots thinking about complicated things when life needs to be seen simply through the eyes of a child.

Day 14

I just looked at the most magnificent video of people rescuing a young humpback whale. Thanks to a woman called Eileen who posted it on the 30 days wild facebook page.

While writing these blogs I'm not writing them to become famous but seeing it as a diary for 30 days wild. Also one of the main reasons is to keep myself accountable regarding writing to my family and myself in a sense. I just love writing, observing, writing, experiencing,writing, reflecting, writing. I need to write to be me. The only audience I need with regard to these blogs is my hubby, beyond that is a lovely surprise when I see how many pageviews theres been.

Wild Yarrow In the middle of one of our garden bushes.

Saw this plant above and had already seen it in a book so I was excited to find it in my garden. It is called Yarrow or Milfoil (Achillea Milfoilium L.) Its latin name is suposedly derived from an 'ancient Greek doctor called Achillos who is said to have cured a seriously wounded warrior called Teleph' (Wild flowers, Ferns  & Grasses by Octopus) . The yarrow absorbs alot of nutrients and has been used to treat a variety of ailments as a result. I must learn more about it!

Yarrow feom a wider view

My son noticed a wild poppy in the middle of our wild potato patch and was very excited about it. It still had its hat on!

Wld poppy just after emerging, stil looks like she has her fuzzy hat on.

So we ended the day looking at an episode of Springwatch. Oh please can I have a pet puffin. I would love to see these in reality, I saw them as a very young child in the Saltee Islands Co.Wexford Ireland. I think itll be too late to catch a glance of them at the beginning of August. Another project for next year perhaps??!!

30 Days Wild Day 11 & 12

Day 11

Mostly today I spent catching up on blogs. Did get to go to our local seaside town for a churh BBQ. The mournes were covered in a mist that also was coming in from the sea. But the weather held up and we all enjoyed ourselves.  I took  a few photos while there.

A Misty Sea at Newcastle Co.Down

A few wild plants by the sea

looks like a European Larch planted by the sea.

Day 12

Its raining, its pouring, the old man is snoring! Oh wait thats my husband on his oxygen machine. We're a right pair we are; the other half suffers from respiratory failure and I  suffer from ME & fibromyalgia & Vertigo and my list is endless. So as I've mentioned before getting to reflect on nature is such a wonderful focus for me as we both live one day at a time.

Now today I focused on a wee bit more birdsong in between the showers.

I managed to recognise the call of the Blue Tit. I'm nearly sure one respoonded to the sounds from my phone. Major excitement on my part!

Took a few photos of this real white wildflower (photos below) that grows a lot around these parts.
Between my research books and I we have come to the conclusion that this is called Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria);  now we could be wrong but we're sticking with this one.
According to my old book as I call it 'It is a common and unwelcome weed in the garden' and digging it up only spreads it  more. Oops, hubby will not be happy about this one.

I'm still learning loads and my son has promised to be more involved in our 30 Days Wild starting from tomorrow. Yeah!

30 Days Wild Day 9 & 10

Day 9

Its another lovely day and evening , I feel like we're in the Mediterranean.
We've a wild elderflower tree (Sambucus Nigra) in full bloom lies against a barn amongst old pipes, and bits of rusty metal.  Indeed wildlife finds a way! I so much want to harvest some of the elderflower and make elderflower cordial but alas with regards to this particular elderflower tree my mobility prevents me from gathering it.

It was a nice surprise when I saw that some foxgloves (Digitalis Purpurea) had come into bloom. I remember as a child putting the foxgloves on each of my fingers. I always thought I looked so fancy..lol.

Looks like theres an end coming to this lovely  weather in south Co.Down. According to the weather forecast the weather is gonna break and there is a high percentage of rain for the next week. So looks like its back to normal..lol..may get my umbrella out!

Day 10

I haven't been really able to do much today with a really bad sinus headache. When I was waiting in the car  in the local village I saw a wee bird singing away on a shed roof amidst the noise of cars coming and going from the local school. 

Nature after the rain is lovely as you see the droplets on big broad green leaves, especially this Iris leaf.

This bright orange rose's beauty is enhanced by the droplets.

The purple/pink rose is heavy with rain and there are a few ants hiding in it. I wonder if anyone knows if ants damage rose bushes or are they being helpful?

Love this fab poppy looking sad as it droops from the weight of the rain.

I'm really enjoying 30 days wild and its great that there are 20 more days left..yeah!!

I'm enjoying taking notes and observing nature and taking photos.I'm always looking for opportunities. I live in the countryside and have a Chronic illness so I can't go far so this really  helps me to focus on other things and not just myself and my Ill health!

30 Days Wild Day 7 & 8

Day 7

Last night the Thunder Storms started; the lightening was fantastic but terrifying. I have always been a bit frightened of storms but I embraced it last night and watched it from the Window in my room. How my son didn't hear it in the next room is beyond me. This morning all is fresh and the buzzing bush is still buzzing even if a little damaged from the heavy rain. Below I've posted a wee video I took of the buzzing bush yesterday. Hoping the video works?!!

The highlight of my day was coming across a ladybird in the back garden.
This is a 7 spot ladybird and its latin name is Coccinella 7 Punctata. Hope that impressed you..lol but seriously  I  love learning the official latin names.

I took a photo of another purple wildflower and eventually identified it as Red Dead nettle. One amusing fact about this wildflower is that " cattle avoid the red dead nettle because of its unpleasant smell' (Wildflowers by Octopus). What is good though is that it doesn't sting and I think its a beautiful wild plant too.

Wow I can't believe its one week already so many photos taken and so much learned!

Day 8

I did'nt get a chance to do much today but I went for a walk about my garden. I focused a wee bit on herbs that we've been growing. There is a  rosemary bush growing for years beside the garden wall at the front of our house.

 We have pockets of chive and their lovely purple flowers everywhere. Love it on lots of dishes.

We even have a a bath full of mint, love this with sparkling water, cucumber and lemon. Hubby usually prepares a big glass jug with the aforementioned ingredients and lots of ice. Lovely!

Love picking all the herbs as I walk along and rolling them in my fingers and smelling all the terrific smells from them.

Took a few photos of daises in the pony field and learned their latin name is 'Bellis Perennis'.

And to end the day more vibrant poppies and other flowers are growing in the second bath we have.

30 Days wild; Day 5 & 6

Day 5

And the birds keep singing and the sun is still shining bright. Alfresco living is the life for me.
A few days ago I rooted out 3 books that I have in my bookshelf on wildlife and plants. One of the books I have had for a very long time since I was in secondary school.(that's a long time ago). So Im attempting to bring a little note of an novis educated in wildlife flavour into the blogs. (well lets see how it goes)

So in search of knowledge about the Dandelion I decided to go and find a dandelion to photograph. I was even quoting a wee bit of shakespere "wherefore art thou" in my desperation to find a dandelion. I found one eventually.  I have always loved the Dandelion flower head, as it overflows with tiny florets of pure yellow. Its such a vesatile plant according to the oldest book I referred to above. Apart from foraging young leaves for salad and have heard of  people making dandelion wine with it, one of the main attributes is that it provides nectar for bees.


                                        




On my wee trip of looking for a  dandelion I noticed how amazing our wall of clematis was so I had to take a photo.           
  

Clematis planted  2 years ago. 

I also wanted to find out more about all the birds  singing about me so I downloaded an app called Tweeter Bird sounds and I'll have to test it and see if its any good.
And to finish off day 5 I reflected the following in my notebook;
' In the cool of the evening I am enjoying sitting outside and taking in the fresh air. My thoughts being; What does it take for us to stop and smell the flowers? For me to really appreciate these things a chronic illness slows me down considerably. People have described activities on 30 days wild about appreciating the small things. But lets turn it on its head and say nature and the wild are the big things and must not be missed by our busyness, as we rush from day to day.' What do you think?

Day 6

I'm attempting with the use of an app to recognise the calls and songs of the birds around me. It will be a slow process but so far my son and I've recognised the Chaffinch.
My hubby plants herbs all over the place so it was a nice surprise to come across a dill plant in the back garden. I just love the smell of dill and its just so nice with new potatoes and butter.

 In search for wild plants I took a photo of some wild grasses that I loved when I was in primary school. We used to play a game called Soldiers, and the winner was the

one with the head still on the stalk. Well today we learned the proper name for this is 'Ribwort Plantain'. According to my old book 'wildflowers' by Octopus its says; 'it used to added to clover to prevent flatulence in cattle .' Now theres an interesting fact for ye! lol. Also the juice from its leaves ' was applied to wounds to promote rapid healing'.

Finally to finish day 6 I came across the purple flower below and so far I have identified as Vetch either tufted or common. its just a beautiful wild flower.

30 Days Wild: Day 3 & 4 Life is grand.

Day 3
Well I've had to group my days together as I realise that writing a blog and publishing it the same day was proving to be a difficult task so on day 3 I started a wildlife notebook. So it was just the notebook, my good pen and myself  having a good time😀
it was another sunny day today and the first thing I came across was the Red kite call before I saw her. I haven't a great camera so catching a red kite in a photo in the moment is impossible. .
Went for a wee walk around my garden and fed Black Jack the pony few of the wild grasses from our lawn and then I noticed that the wee scamp stamps his feet when he was being impatient for more grass..made me smile so much.

Our lasagne gardening potatoe patch

The wild potatoe patch!

In our back garden we have a bit of a potatoe patch phenomenon. We prepared a square of land in the back for growing potatoes 3 years ago and we had a great crop that year. Then last year we didn't have time to do anything with that square patch of land but we got another great crop of spuds out of it. Well this year we assumed that no spuds would grow in it so my hubby set up a lasagne bed beside the kitchen and got some seed potatoes and put them to work. They're coming up nicely but so are the potato plants from the square patch of land, it seems like we have a never-ending resource of potatoes!

Today was absolutely hectic it was my son's birthday party. however we had specified that all children wear old clothes and wellies or old shoes. Basically the children went up the hilly field with their nerf guns (no bullets) to have a run around and it was lots of fun. The nettles got in troube a few times so legs had to be doctered with a good old doc leaf.

Me and my shadow

One thing is sure though the;  birds sing away in the morning and evening no matter how busy you are.
Theres been a lovely light brezze today that has added to the sunny day.
I noticed this year that the wild strawberry plants we introduced into the garden have gone completely wild and are creeping across the whole front wall garden. When I say wild I mean they're taking over the whole plant bed. I look forward to seeing if we get many strawberries from them but they're wee white flowers are beautiful on their own.

Oh and to end the day I took a lovely photo of the yellow iris' that grow at the front of the house. Simply to say when I see them they bring me joy in my heart.