Welcome to days 11 – 15 of my 30 Days Wild challenge from The Wildlife Trusts. Every year in the month of June we are challenged to do something “wild” to connect with nature. If you haven’t already seen Days 1-5 and Days 6-10 you can catch up on my blog.
Day 11 of 30 Days Wild – Spider
Day 11 we received a visitor in our bathroom. I have to say I’m afraid of spiders but I decided to take a look. Just look and those markings, and that reflection on the glass 😱 Mr or Mrs spider was set free in the garden 🕷
Day 12 of 30 Days Wild – The River Don by evening
A peaceful walk on my own this evening at our local river walk. It was warm, beautiful skies and I had the opportunity to just stop, breathe and relax. Bliss!
Day 13 of 30 Days Wild – Pressing Flowers
Experimenting with a new flower press! This year I’ve been keen to try and preserve some of the beautiful bouquets I’ve received, as well as press some of the flowers in the garden. I’ve chosen a geum, viola and pansy to try. So far I’ve learnt pressing bulky flowers is tricky, so I’ve tried a different method for those. More about that later.
Last year I had a go at ironing flowers to preserve them but unfortunately this method wasn’t good at keeping them in a good condition long term (plus it was a bit smelly when ironing them).
Here is a video of me preparing the flowers along with some extra photos.
Day 14 of 30 Days Wild – A wander around Fyvie Castle
One of my favourite National Trust of Scotland castles I used to visit as a child (I loved to learn about castle hauntings). Today we had a wander around the grounds which included a walk over to the lake. We were not disappointed! We got a glimpse of a lovely swan family, parents and cygnets and a family of ducks too. We even saw a little wren’s next and stopped and watched the parent bird fly back and forth with tasty morsels for the little chicks. I’ll definitely have to go back and visit as soon as I can!
Day 15 of 30 Days Wild – Cacti at Inverness Botanic Garden
Today I went through and edited my images I took from the cacti house at Inverness Botanic Gardens a few weeks ago. I also took the time to learn more about cacti, how do they work? Quite amazing plants really 🌵
We all know a cactus has spines, but do you know why they are so handy? Spines reduce the risk of getting eaten (I can’t imagine that being a pleasant nibble) but they also prevent water loss. How do they do this? Well the spines reduce the airflow close to the cactus creating a moisture layer that reduces evaporation and transpiration. Reducing airflow also provides some shade which in turn reduces the surface temperature and moisture loss!
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Come back soon to read more about what we got up to on days 16 – 20.
Winter Robin 
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