A Year in Photos – 2019

As December comes to a close and the end of the decade draws ever closer, it’s time to look back at 2019. The year was slow to get going but when it did it snowballed! The second half of 2019 has been a roller-coaster! Together, David and I have been on many exciting adventures. Below find 12 random pictures that highlight the year that was 2019!

January:

The year began with a ten mile walk around Kewsick, where I introduced Riley to the joys of paddling in Derwentwater.

Riley in Entrust NT Hands

February:

During this cold month I embarked on many Riley walks with friends and family.

Family walk to Formby Beach

March:

David and I became members of the RSPB and visited many reserves in the North West. A favourite of mine is Leighton Moss, Morecambe where we got to feed hungry robins and tits.

Feeding a Robin

April:

We purchased our first female Lady Gouldian Finch. She is a nice addition to the aviary.

Rize the Lady Gouldian Finch

May:

I managed to go on my first wild swim of the season in May. I took a gentle walk to High Dam near Windermere for a peaceful swim amidst nature.

High Dam swim

June:

June had so many highlights it was difficult to chose just one, from raising painted lady butterflies to being bee-keepers for the day. However playing host to our American friend Jennifer who came to visit for a second time was even more fun than her first visit. We hiked in the Ogwen Valley and wild swam in Llyns Bochlwyd and Idwal.

Selfie time at Ogwen Valley

July:

Work wise 2019 hasn’t been a great year for neither David nor myself. To outweigh all the negativity in his workplace David joined in a fun day with dalmatian puppies.

David and Dalmatian Puppy

August:

Saving a poor gull who had fallen from its nest (high up on a roof) from uncertain death was ultimately fulfilling especially when a week later it flew off independently.

Harald

September:

We finally managed to go on a short break to the Lake District after postponing earlier in the year.

Grasmere from Grey Crag

October:

I finally ticked off Glaslyn after booking a short break away to Snowdonia for my birthday.

Glaslyn

November:

David bought a new car! A Honda Civic but I still miss his old car the Renault Clio.

Honda Civic

December:

Though December is all about the excitement (or stress) of Christmas, this year’s trip to New York overshadowed Christmas preparations. My most lasting memory of the holiday was standing on the shoreline before a magnificent Brooklyn Bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge

Let’s hope 2020 will be another kind year!

I wish you all good health and happiness for the new year ahead!

Thanks for your continued support,

Christine xx

30 Days Wild 2017 – Week 1

It’s June, and that time of year again! Time for The Wildlife Trust’s wonderful initiative, 30 Days Wild. Inspiring us all to get that little bit more wild! This is the third year I’ll be participating and I have to admit, I was a little excited for June to arrive. I learned so much during 2016’s 30 Days and enjoyed immensely the camaraderie of the online community. If you’d like to follow fellow participants, then click on My Wild Life Bloggers, and join in the discussion!

Day One: Thursday.

What could I do for the opening to my 30 Days Wild? With it being a long day at work, I decided to participate in Friends of the Earth’s, Great British Bee Count. The count runs from 19th May to 30th June and helps gather data on how healthy (or not) the British Bee population is.

So once home, and dinner cooked, out I went into our yarden and stood hovering around the plants I know are popular with the bees. I’ve found that bees tend to like blueish coloured flowers. Among these plants are bell flowers, cat mint and chives. In just one small corner I counted five tree bumblebees, in an inner city yarden I find that amazing! There were also sightings of buff tailed bumblebees and I happily saw my first mason bee of the season. The yarden is usually awash with these cute little bees, all knocking each other from the flowers but I’ve noticed numbers seem to be down this year.

Tree Bumblebee

Buff Tailed Bumblebee

Mason Bee

Have you participated in the Great British Bee Count? If not, you can download their free and easy to use app here, and start counting. 🙂

Day Two: Friday.

The Wildlife Trust’s encourages Random Act of Wildness. These Random Acts, be it for a few minutes or hours, are designed to add a little bit of nature to our otherwise busy lives. You can find their free downloadable app with 101 inspiring suggestions here. One such Random Act is find a creepy crawly. So after work I looked among the plants and undergrowth of our yarden, actively seeking creepy crawlies. I found two to photograph. One was a seven spot ladybird and the other a scarlet lily beetle. One is deemed a goody by gardeners and the other a baddie! I’ve Googled some interesting facts about both.

Seven Spot Ladybird

Scarlet Lily Beetle

Seven Spotted Ladybird:

• The most common ladybird seen in Europe.
• Has a lifespan of a year.
• Can eat up to 5.000 aphids during their life.
• Secretes a fluid from their legs that is distasteful to predators.

Scarlet Lily Beetle:

• Is not a native species to Britain but has been colonising since 1939.
• Often seen on lilies and fritillaries and causes damage to these plants.
• Overwinters in soil cover.
• Studies have shown females find plants by scent.

Do you have any more curious facts about either species?

Day Three: Saturday.

This weekend was the annual National Garden BioBlitz. I took part in this survey last year. You can read how that went on here. This year I didn’t have as much time available, so I snatched an hour here and there. The aim of the project is to count the plants and animals that have arrived in the yarden ‘of its own accord’. Whereas I counted 54+ species of trees, shrubs, alpines and perennials I had planted. I only counted 21+ of flora and fauna that had arrived in the yarden of their own steam. Among them were:

Flora: bell flowers, foxgloves, poppies, herb robert and the annoying sticky weed!

Foxgloves

Goldfinches Picture by David Evans

Herb Robert

Starling Picture by David Evans

Fauna: goldfinches, starlings, magpie, bee-fly and a spittle bug.

Out of the 20 species to look out for, our lowly little yarden chalked up 5/20. We were able to tick off, house sparrow, mason bee, tree bumblebee, garden snail and seven spot ladybird.

Did you participate in this survey? What wonders did you find?

Day Four: Sunday.

Last year, I participated in Wild October, an initiative started by 30 Days Wild’s Facebook page. The aim was to enjoy the changing season of Autumn. During the month I gathered fallen leaves and other detritus from a local park and displayed them on a nature table. This year for 30 Days Wild, I decided to do similar but with flowers and grasses I found along a woodland walk in Liverpool’s Festival Gardens. Of Course Riley had to tag along too. 🙂

Christine and Riley

Junes Nature Table

Riley and David in woodland walk

While researching for this post, I was saddened to read that Festival Gardens has been earmarked for redevelopment, with shops and a ferry terminal in the pipe works. I do hope they don’t build on the already established park. The park as it stands has lovely lakeside paths and woodland walks and was created back in 2011 so the wildlife has had time to establish themselves. Redevelopment would mean a loss of habitat for wildlife and the opportunity for the residents to get closer to nature.

Have you lost a valued place of nature to redevelopment? Let me know your thoughts on this?

Day Five: Monday. 

Everywhere I look there are elders and their flowers growing all over the city. Waving seductively at the sides of roads, gracing parks, and even surprisingly, growing down my road! So I decided I would try my hand at making some elderflower champagne. I don’t know whether it will work as I’ve never done it before, but I thought. ‘I would give it a try’!

There are just so many recipes and videos on YouTube that I didn’t know which one to follow. So I sort of made a conglomeration of a couple!

Ingredients:

• David and I foraged 10 medium sized elderflower heads.
• Used 6 litres of water. 1 litre boiled and 5 cold.
• The zest and juice of two lemons as well as two halves thrown in for good measure.
• 750g of sugar (I used granulated).
• 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar.

Elderflowers

Elderflower Champagne Mix

Method:

• After sterilizing a bucket David measured the sugar and dissolved into 1 litre of hot water.
• While David stirred the sugar solution I trimmed and cut the elderflowers from their stalks, shaking any bugs off.
• We threw the flowers into the bucket and added the zest and juice of the lemons.
• Then left in two lemon halves in the mixture.
• Poured the litre of sugar solution onto the elderflower and lemon and then added 5 litres of cold water.
• Finally added the white wine vinegar and gave it a good stir.
• Covered bucket with a tea-towel and left solution to (hopefully) start fermenting.
• Stir the mixture once everyday until you see bubbles or fungus. Then sieve and bottle up. Be careful to leave gaps in top of bottles and monitor as the natural yeast in the elderflower and the sugar can cause the bottles to explode!

I will keep you all updated on our progress.

Day Six: Tuesday. 

Since it’s been raining for the past two days, I decided to do a little research on the topic. The Met Office offered a helpful info-gram. This video here, is helpful too.

Five Facts:

• It rains due to warm moist air cooling and condensing to liquid.
• The shape of a rain drop is actually like a jelly bean.
• The average speed of a rain drop is 14 mph.
• Petrichor is the smell of rain as it hits dry ground.
• Rain falls from weather fronts (two differing air masses) whereas showers stem from clouds.

Day Seven: Wednesday.

Saving a buff-tailed bumblebee

With this deluge of rain we are having, means the poor wildlife seem to be having a hard time. The rain makes it harder for birds to forage for seeds and insects for their nestlings and bees become sodden and lethargic. It always seems to be buff-tailed bumblebees we find clinging to flower petals in the hope of finding shelter. Here’s what you can do if you find one.

The RSPB state two tablespoons of granulated sugar to one tablespoon of water. I think that is a little excessive. We only use teaspoons. One teaspoon to half a teaspoon of sugar. Place the sugar water where the bee can sit safely and drink. You will be amazed at how quickly the bee perks up.

Our little bumblebee was also wet and cold so we warmed her by the radiator before releasing her back safely into the yarden.

Have you tried reviving tired bees? How did it work for you?

Summary:

Nature is supposed to be natural, not forced, however this being my third year of participating in 30 Days Wild, I have felt pressurised to do activities which I haven’t done in previous years. Have you felt the same?

I did enjoy foraging for elderflowers and counting the bees. It’s amazing that even a small urban yarden can attract a variety of wildlife.

What random acts of wildness have you enjoyed doing this week?

A Look Back: at week one in previous years.

2015: Mint moths and buying homes for nature.

2016: Bee facts and growing maris bard potatoes.

Thanks for dropping by,

Christine x

Welcome to the Family… Artie!

The newest member of the Connor-Evans family is Artie a nine week old kitten!

And this is his story!

Since the 11th of August I have been following the plight of two little kittens who had been discovered by a volunteer of Liverpool based pet rescue charity Rescue Me Animal Sanctuary. Their facebook wall posts first alerted me of the ‘Country Road’ kittens and their story.

They had been picked up on Country Road, Liverpool as two little girls were trying to give them away. Heather saw the two kittens were very young and poorly. She managed to take them from the children. In her enquires she found out that the kittens were from a litter of five and the task then was to track down the other three kittens and the mother cat.

They managed to track the remainder of the litter but only took another kitten into their care. The owners decided to keep the other two!

Then on the 9th of September the rescue posted that the two kittens who had survived from the three, were ready for adoption! I in half jest commented that I wanted one!

I then posted the picture on David’s Facebook page joking that it was fated that we should get Arthur as we had just come back from Edinburgh and my favourite place to visit is Arthur’s Seat! Add that to the fact that Arthur is David’s middle name, then it must be destined?

David seemed nonplussed. All he said was that Arthur looked ‘mischievous!’ So I never argued the case further.

Then on Sunday, the 14th of September I read their latest post in which they stated that Arthur’s sister was reserved but he was still looking for a home. My mind was made up there and then! The following day, without really consulting David I made a call to the rescue about adopting Arthur. I was anxiously nervous all day, indeed all week really! I was not really thinking I would get a call back and then in the afternoon while at work my phone rang out in the small office! There was no number displayed so I answered and it was my ‘call back’ regarding Arthur! 😀

I arranged a house visit from one of their volunteers, it would be Heather who found Arthur along with his sister! So hurrying back home later that afternoon, all excited and stressed, David and I waited for 7pm and our visit! Unfortunately as is usually the case with us, things did not go according to plan! Heather was sick and could not come. So we arranged another visit for the next day.

So Tuesday came and again with sweaty palms we waited for our visit. Heather, though still not 100% came to visit and told us about Arthur and how he was into ‘everything,’ and the procedure of adopting.

I think David had some reservations but he never voiced them. I don’t think he wanted an energetic kitten, but all kittens are energetic!

Later that evening I got a text off Trisha who was Arthur’s foster carer. He was over on the Wirral! We arranged a 7pm viewing for Wednesday and I was so exited I could hardly sleep!

Wednesday could not come quick enough. In work I was willing the time when I could leave and then when the time came to make our way through the ‘Mersey tunnel,’ my nerves were at breaking point!

It was a trial to find the foster home, as a twenty minute drive turned into forty! But we finally found the street! With cat carrier in hand we nervously knocked on the door and was warmly welcomed into the home.

Arthur was asleep when we arrived but after introductions, he seemed to be receptive to us! We signed the relevant paperwork and handed over the adoption fee. Arthur was then placed into the carrier and was ‘ours’! I was so eager to take him home!

On arriving, we showed Arthur to our living room first. We showed him his new toys, played with him and fed him. We took him with us to our bedroom and he slept between David and I all night. He did have fits of crying but once he saw us lying down for the night he settled down too.

I have had kittens before and I know from experience that they usually want to start to explore come the turning off of the lamplight, but Arthur probably stressed from the move did not wake us until I woke up at 7am! I was amazed!

He has been with us now for two days and has settled in nicely. He has his mad fits of playing and then quiet times when he snuggles up with his dad or me. I love when he follows me from room to room to see what I am doing.

I know he is going to be a treasured member of the family. Even David is happy I pushed to get Artie, as he has been buying him scratching posts and cat boxes!

I have always said a house is not a home without a cat, and Artie certainly makes our ‘new’ house a home! 😀