Wild June

The other day, I stumbled across this Wildlife Trust campaign to get people outdoors this June. They’re calling it 30 Days Wild, and the idea is that you get outdoors every day in June and do something ‘wild’. I’ll be honest some of their ‘wild’ ideas seem a bit tame, but I love the principle of the thing. Getting out in the fresh air and being closer to nature and wildlife is so deeply enriching and freeing.

Because of who I am and where I live, I already do the kinds of ‘wild’ things they are suggesting everyday. Simple things like drinking my tea in the garden, lying in the grass, watching the birds and so on. Today, my after work routine included tea in the garden (with Jamie the dog, of course), picking the first of our little strawberry crop, checking the progress of our fruit trees and lying on a hay bale whilst admiring the view, the latter being one of my favourite evening thinking spots. Even at work I get to spend a lot of time outside: today the boy I work with and I had races around the school field, checked on the tadpoles in the pond and watered our magically tall sunflowers.

The campaign has inspired me to share some of these simple ‘acts of wildness’ as the campaign would call them, in the hope that other people might be inspired by the benefits of getting outside. It’s also inspired me to do some of the bigger things I’ve been hoping to do for a while, the first being an owl walk at dusk. I know there are Barn Owls around here, as I occasionally spot them when I take Jamie out before bed, or when driving home from an evening out. They are such captivating birds and I’d love to go looking for them, and maybe be able to observe them for longer than the usual fleeting glimpses. I’ve half signed up to do a run in July, so I guess I’ll be out training in the country lanes as well. There are a few other ideas I have in mind, too – perhaps I will even brave getting the tent out and sleeping under canvas!