30 Days Wild // Week 1

30 Days Wild is an annual event run by The Wildlife Trusts that encourages people to get out and take part in 'Random Acts Of Wildness' every day in June. I have taken part in 30 Days Wild since 2017, so of course, I had to take part again this year. We are a pretty 'wild' family as it is...when it comes to nature, wildlife and such related things so it's nothing too out of the ordinary to merge my daily photo project with 30 Days Wild throughout June. Rather than only just sharing how our month goes on my daily photography blog and Instagram, I wanted to do weekly updates here on top of my usual Wednesday uploads, similarly to our Veganuary posts back in January.

June 1st - Day 1
There are many ideas and prompts shared to help inspire you when you sign up on The Wildlife Trusts website. They send out a free pack of stuff to help you plan, however, I always opt for the downloadable pack as I feel the ones posted out incur unnecessary costs for the charity that could be used elsewhere better.
Anyway! Day 1. I'm not sure if this has been a thing in previous years, but it is the first time I have taken part and that is the Big Wild Breakfast! To celebrate the first day of the challenge we were encouraged to take our breakfast outside and eat in our garden or local park etc. 
Baker and I spread out the blankets on the grass in our back garden and sat in the sun, listening to all the birds and I had my breakfast. There are Starlings who nest in our neighbour's roof and we watched the parents bring food to the little ones who were chirping away inside - a highlight for sure.
It was lovely, however, Mr H was a huge miss and I would have enjoyed it, even more, had he been there too (and not on a 15+ hour work shift)!

June 2nd - Day 2
We couldn't forget to mark the beginning of Pride Month too, so for Day 2 we hunted in our gardens for plants and flowers of different colours to represent the LGBTQIA+ flag! It turned out to be a little more difficult in practice than theory, with most of our garden being green, purple and pink. We may not have had the whole spectrum of colours, but it was still fun! 
According to https://identify.plantnet.org/ we have:
Red - Common Peony
Orange - Pokerplant
Yellow - Courgette Flower
Green - Japanese Spindletree
Blue - Adria Bellflower
Purple - Garden Pansy
Pink - Bouncing Bess

June 3rd - Day 3
Every single morning, as part of our routine, I top up the birdbath and feeders. We are so lucky to have a nice space to welcome all the birds in our front garden and are able to watch them without encroaching on them from our living room window. I absolutely love watching and photographing birds playing, washing and drinking in our little bath. For today's photo, it was a young Starling. 

June 4th - Day 4
Mr H does actually get days off from work occasionally haha! It was such lovely weather and we spent the morning together with Baker and the piggies, Mars (featured above) and Argo, enjoying the back garden. I potted out some mint plants as a natural insect - mainly ant - repellent, to go by our front door and wiggled my toes in the cool grass!

June 5th - Day 5
It seems this guy has set up camp in our Bellflower plant pot. I, like many people, am not a huge spider fan but you can't deny they are interesting to watch and photograph. As long as he stays there I'll be happy...

June 6th - Day 6 
While on my morning rounds topping up bird feeders, the birdbath and watering plants, I spotted this Large Heath[?] Caterpillar chilling out on our Poker plant. I also spent time playing with a website that is new to me, https://identify.plantnet.org/, taking photos of and finding out the names of the different plants in our gardens. 
As an update, I checked again on Day 7 and the Caterpillar is still there, so we might get to see a chrysalis before they transform into a butterfly.

June 7th - Day 7 
In previous years taking part in 30 Days Wild, the majority of the project is shot out and about. However, last year and still this year photos away from home are few and far between. We are adventuring, hiking, wildlife hunting, outdoor people but we've had to make do with exploring the world from our window and in our little gardens for now.
That being said, we have been trying to get out on one walk per month. With the schools being back and most people working during the week, that is when we try to make our escape! That coupled with the fact Mr H is leaving his current job for a new one at the end of this week, I wanted to fit in one last walk along Newburn Riverside. 
It was a lovely nature walk together, with very few other people around and the horses were even there to say goodbye. I took a few more photos, too many to post here but will share them in a separate post in the coming weeks. 
To see even more photos of the amazing nature and wildlife at Newburn Riverside,
check out this post > Earth Day 2021

Week 1 of 30 Days Wild has been and gone, and as always it flew past. Time goes far too fast on this planet so I hope you are also using June to get wild and enjoy the little wonders we are so incredibly lucky to have. As this post goes live we are already 5 days into week 2, so if you'd like to keep up to date with my daily photos in real-time pop on over to https://www.instagram.com/mrs.hall0w/.

Until next time...