30 Days Wild - day 4

Today we headed off to the beach to explore the dunes and do a little beach combing as it was such a beautiful day.

We found a large amount of sea gooseberries washed up on the shore, as we usually do this time of year. Many beetles were hiding in the seaweed too.

A couple of very soggy bees had been washed up after falling in the sea, my husband relocated them away from the shore line and into the dunes where they could dry out a little.

We did find a dead fish, it was a lovely blue and silver colour, a dead crab and many pieces of crab shell. Also an extremely large purple claw...see photographs below.

The children collected a few things to display on our nature table to remind them of our day, some sea glass, fossils, shells and a beautiful little pebble with a little heart in the centre.

It was a lovely day and we are planning another beach trip to go rock pooling in a week or two.

Fishy Farewell

I have had a pond in the garden for more than ten years, it started as a very small wildlife pond so that the children could see the frogs and rapidly progressed into a very large fish pond, containing many different types of fish including koi carp. I'm not sure how this happened it just did! When we moved I intended to donate the fish to someone else's pond but couldn't find anyone to take them on in time for the move, So we moved with them, that was a very stressful day and I lost my two biggest koi.

We lost another couple of our largest koi in the cold weather over winter so the pond population was much smaller and this prompted us to finally make the decision that it was time to re-home them once and for all, they should now be in their new home swimming merrily around. The photograph below is of one of the fish during transportation.

We now have a large pond to fill, in the area of the garden which has become known as the grotto mainly because it is segmented off from the rest of the garden by willows, fruit trees and overgrown ivy. It is a very Zen like peaceful area, where it is nice to relax with a cup of tea and a book. As every piece of space is well used here we are hoping to transform this area into a new home for chickens, once we have done some more research. Kind of a sad day but with a hint of looking forward to a new life stage as chicken keepers.