30 Days Wild 2019 – Roundup!

I thought I would write a roundup of my 2019, 30 Days Wild.

Blogging everyday is a challenge in itself but when illness puts pay to plans it makes the challenge all that more difficult! Well it did for me! I had to cancel a weekend break to the Lakes and also a badger hide encounter. However, hopefully I will be able to re-book both in the near future?!

Before 30 Days Wild had even begun my story was featured on the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire Wildlife Trusts’ page. I was surprised to see they used my picture of swimming in Rydal Water as their feature! You can read my story here.

Saturday’s in June were meant to be RSPB reserve visits but David and I only managed to visit one site and that was Leighton Moss to meet with their moths.

Buff Tip Moth – David Evans

Small Elephant Hawk Moth

I did manage to schedule some blog posts and enjoyed researching about red squirrels and dragonflies.

Red Squirrel by David Evans

Golden Ringed Dragonfly

Gaia was an impromptu visit but an impressive addition to my 30 Days Wild. I also focused on the moon with some facts about our beautiful satellite.

Gaia

The Moon by David Evans

There were two highlights of the month. One was of course watching my five painted lady caterpillars (from Insect Lore), become chrysalids and then beautiful adult butterflies! I would definitely do that experience again!

Day 9 – caterpillar

Chrysalids

Painted Lady Butterfly

The other highlight was the bee experience at The Bee Centre. It really made me wish I had a bigger garden so I could get a hive. I would love to become a bee keeper, and I think David would too.

The Bee Centre

Christine and honey bees

David and honey bees

Looking back, perhaps my 2019, 30 Days Wild really wasn’t that bad at all!

Would I blog again everyday for 30 Days in June? Probably. I do like how the challenge makes you focus on the small things as well as the large.

Have you enjoyed my journey through this years 30 Days Wild? What did you like and what didn’t you like?

Thanks for reading, and for one last time, stay wild!

Christine xx

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day Eighteen.

Day 18: Though the full moon was yesterday. I thought I would focus a little on our closest satellite today. Our moon is the 6th largest in the solar system and is 4.5 billion years old. Is 384,000km away and rotates at the same rate as it orbits, meaning the same hemisphere faces Earth all the time. It’s thin atmosphere provides no protection from the sun, surface temperatures range from +150°C to -250°C.

The Moon by David Evans

Are you like me and on a clear night always look to the heavens in search of the moon and what phase it is? Sunlight is reflected off the surface of the moon creating moonlight. Phases are created by our view of the moon as it orbits the Earth, hence why it changes phase every night. It takes the moon 29.5 days to go through it’s eight phases called a lunar month.

The phases are:

• New Moon
• Waxing Crescent
• First Quarter
• Waxing Gibbous
• Full
• Waning Gibbous
• Third Quarter
• Waning Crescent
• New Moon

The far side of the moon, known as the ‘dark side’ is never visible from the Earth. In January 2019 a Chinese spacecraft Chang’e -4 with rover Yutu-2 is the first man made craft to view this mysterious hemisphere of the moon.

Do you know any fun facts on the moon?

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine x