Tuesday 30 June 2015

Day 30 Go Pond Dipping

Day 30 and  the final day of the 30 Days Wild Challenge. What a month!  I've done some really great activities during June, some better than others.  The important thing is that I've spent time outdoors every day and I've spent some memorable times with my daughters carrying out my random acts of wildness.

Somethings I did were a success and other things not quite as successful.  I'd wanted to look for Water Voles, spot Kingfishers and see Lizards at Ainsdale but this month it wasn't too be.

Looking back over the thirty days I've managed to get to some great places and do some great activities such as walking up a mountain, visiting a wetland centre to see Avocets and Otters and managing to do a walk in my favourite place, a U-shaped glaciated valley outside Dufton in Westmorland.

Tonight I'd planned to finish off by going pond dipping with my youngest daughter.  We drove out to Ashurst Beacon Country Park to visit a couple of ponds there but one was dried up and the other covered in duckweed. Sadly we didn't get to catch much with our small fishing net apart from tadpoles, snails and a couple of minnows.  

A bit of a disappointment really as I was hoping for diving beetles and more.  It didn't ruin the evening though as at least we'd managed to get out for an hour, stretch our legs with a nice walk and take in some fresh air.

Weed covered pond

Minnow
covered in lumps

Daughter having a go
at Pond Dipping

Grey Squirrels playing

Adorable pests

Playing

Hanging about on a tree

Walk through a shaded woods

Looks like our Pebble Bugs
have been breeding

So I've reached the end of this 30 Days Wild Challenge Blog now and all that remains for me to say is a big thank you to everyone who has stopped by and left comments.  I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed putting it all together.  It's been hard at times having to come home and sift through hundreds of photos before resizing them and putting them on the blog.  It's been a real labour of love but it's all been worth it. 

Finally, I must say a big thank you to my lovely daughters who have accompanied me on most of my activities during June and I only hope we can continue doing lovely things for many more years to come!

My daughters enjoying the mud 
at the Beacon Country Park back in April 2006

PS
Did you manage to have a look back at Day 28?

I managed to upload the photos
 from the walk late Monday night as promised.

14 comments:

  1. I love that last photo! It's been a fantastic month but I'm so tired now! The daily wild doings were ok, it was the photo sorting and the blogging that has taken up all my time and meant pretty much a month of not going to sleep before 1am! I'm really looking forward to blogging less, haha! I've really enjoyed your varied adventures and you've given me ideas for places to visit too! I could spent the 30 Days Asleep now I think so I'm heading to bed but I will pop back to see your Day 28 (thanks for the reminder!) tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aye, I've some sleeping to catch up on myself. I have to agree the photo sorting and the blogging was the most time consuming part.

      Delete
  2. You have had a wonderful month and I have enjoyed all your posts and photos so a big well done...
    Amanda xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes 30 Days Wild has been great!

    I love those photos of the squirrels!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to see those squirrels having a good play late in the evening.

      Delete
  4. such a wonderful 30 days of wild adventure! i noticed some blogs are doing the 365 days of stay wild challenge, i dont think that will be hard for you...we went to a lovely country park over the last weekend and they had a tiny pond over grown really you could hardly see in to it but my wordy we saw 2 newts and a frog! to my daughters delight!...great photographs! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a super 30 days wild you've had Ian and I've enjoyed reading all your posts and going to all these wonderful places with you and your daughters. Thank you for visiting my blog too and leaving comments - it was good to know someone was visiting and reading. It did get hard towards the end with being away from home and limited internet access but we got there:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Rosie, I enjoyed visiting your blog to see what activities you got up each day in June too.

      Delete
  6. I've so enjoyed reading about your 30 days wild Ian and seeing all the great photos. You have had some wonderful ideas of places to visits and projects and your posts have been very inspirational. Love the Pebble Bugs in the last post :)

    Off to catch up on now on the last week of your Challenge as we've been away on holiday and I have some blog catching up to complete!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ragged Robin, glad you've enjoyed my posts. We did the Pebble Bugs on Day 29, they were good fun to do.

      Delete
  7. Ian, I am sorry I missed this last one! I think you did amazingly and these final squirrel photos are just so fun!x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No worries Kezzie, thanks for stopping by. Glad you liked the squirrel photos.

      Delete