Day 01 Explore a New Local Trail

My challenge almost never got off the ground this evening. After an okay sort of day weather wise, as I arrived home from work the wind began to really pick up and the heavens opened up.

The plan in the morning had been to start with something easy for day one of the challenge, to explore a new local trail around Bickerstaffe, about a five minute drive from my house.  The rest of the family were to join me but given the horrible weather, I told them that accompanying me on my first challenge was voluntary. My eldest daughter decided to come along and keep me company so after tea we drove out to Bickerstaffe and parked up in the car park next to the football field.

It rained throughout the walk, the wind never relented and I lost count of the number of times I had to wipe the camera lens but thirty minutes later we were back at the car park.

Let's hope the weather improves tomorrow!

Map at the ready

Car park and the starting point

Holy Trinity Church

Colour in the churchyard

Churchyard flowers

Start of the Trail

Puddles on the trailpath

Goldfinch

Buttercups

Purple and green

Buttercups and nettles

Looking across the field

Hidden ponds

Hints of purple amongst shades of green

Windswept Fields

Windswept!
 

Ploughed field

Hidden streams

Looking back towards
the woods we passed by

A spot of purple in the field

I wonder what wildlife you

can find on that roundabout

Under the motorway bridge
and out of the wind and rain

The halfway point

The bridge over the motorway appears

My daughter soaking wet

Bridge over the motorway

The M58 motorway

Rain washed leaves

Soaked but the end is near

No excuses, just get out!

"I'll be looking 

for lizards in 

the sand dunes"

I had a lazy day today getting ready for tomorrow and the start of '30 Days Wild' Challenge.  I did however venture out to my local shops early this morning to fetch a copy of the Independent on Sunday as there was a chance that I may be in the featured article about the Wildlife Trusts '30 Days Wild' campaign having been contacted by the Independent reporter Katie Grant to discuss some of the things I'd be doing for the challenge.

An interesting article which talks about only 1 in 10 children ever playing in wild spaces and children not understanding the value of nature.  It also talks about the benefits people reap from getting back to nature and how the body gets stressed when you become separated from it.

You can read the full article on the INDEPENDENT website under the Environment > Nature section by clicking HERE

And yes, I did feature in the article, although I must put the record straight and say that a local group are not going vole watching along the river but I plan to go vole watching along a local brook called the 'River Alt'as part of the challenge.

Looking for inspiration?

There are literally hundreds

of bloggers taking part in

30 Days Wild this month!

People from all over

the country are blogging

about their

Random Acts of Wildness

- 

from the Isle of Mull

 to

Northern Island,

from central London

to

Penzance!

You can see the full list 

on the Wildlife Trusts 

website by clicking 

HERE

The 30 Days Wild Challenge

30 Days Wild is a month-long nature challenge taking place this June.  The Wildlife Trusts are asking people to sign up and do something wild every day for a whole month - and make nature part of their everyday life.

You can find out more about the 

30 Days Wild Challenge 

at 

http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/30DaysWildInfo