30 Days Wild - week 4

This last week of Thirty Days Wild is a bit longer than the others - and, as the weather improved, a little bit wilder.

Day 22 - we went out to a Food and Drink Festival held at Shipley Park, and, after sampling the goodies on offer, went for a short walk round. Shipley Country Park was once an opencast mine but in the years since trees have been planted and meadows grown. It's not 'wild', but it's lovely open countryside with paths and cycle-ways.

Walking through one of the small woods I spotted orchids growing beside the path.


Later that day we went back out to a different, closer to home, area of the park to catch the rather dramatic sunset.

Day 23 - A more 'formal' outdoors day, with a visit to Locko Hall Gardens. Gravel paths lead out past rose gardens and herbaceous borders to a woodland walk with squirrels scampering among the trees





















Day 24 - I've been wondering for a while what this lovely wildflower/weed is, growing in my parents' abandoned lawn. Twitter friends tell me it's hawkweed. I want to make sure to lift some and establish it in my own garden to attract bees.

Another wildlife encounter at my parents - an old birds' nest found inside a cupboard, inside a shed! Those birds were determined to stay dry.












Also, an evening walk at Dale Abbey through the Hermit's Woods with foxgloves, and old twisted trees growing in seemingly impossible places






















Day 25 - a day at home, with bees and other insects investigating the welsh poppies, and a pigeon flying into the dining room window!



















Day 26 - another at home day with more bees, and strawberries (though they're not completely wild)











Day 27 - a day out in Derbyshire with Painted Lady butterflies settling on scabious flowers at Hopton Hall, and later a walk down into Bradford dale





























Day 28 - a day of gardening, supervised by a blackbird singing on the roof. This week's sunshine has brought feverfew plants into flower. Generally there are lots of small insects buzzing round them, but not at the moment I snapped this photo!







Day 29 - the hottest day of the year so far, a day of checking the water level in the birdbath, and finding baby feathers on the lawn.












Day 30 - the last day of the month was still sunny but cooler than the day before. We finished a visit to Wirksworth by walking to Stoney Wood, a 'rescued' quarry now a wildlife haven filled with trees, bushes, grass and wildflowers. A good place to end these Thirty Days Wild.