Nature Walks: Time To Spot The Wildlife

If you go down to the steps today, you're in for a big surprise.....Around the corner from our house lies a short flight of steps which leads us down to the local canal walk and to the children it's like stepping into a magical world. We step on to the path and there's two choices, shall we travel to the left or the right of the path, as both directions promise different adventures. 

Let's initially turn to the left and picture the following scene: a long winding path following the canal which is a beautiful stretch of water, home to a number of ducks. The sides are adorned with an abundance of blackberry bushes, the black fruit gleaming in the sun tempting us for an impromptu snack. The girls can recognise them now , but they always check with us first, it's our first year of foraging with them. We discovered two bushes of what looked like black currants today, one looked unsafe with green pus oozing out of the berry when it was squeezed, and one had familiar red juice squirting out once pressed. 

As we travel along, a thicker set of greenery becomes more apparent along the sides and another set of steps emerge. These lead up to a secluded, mysterious woodland, and the questions are begging to be asked, will there be a teddy bear picnic taking place on the hill today? Or will a brown bear be napping in the foliage den? We hear rustling and a squirrel rushes by, we're safe today to explore to our hearts content. There are fallen trees to climb over, tall trees to hug and thank them for giving us oxygen, with fallen birds nests, acorns, emerging tree roots, and pinecones hidden amongst the leaves covering the woodland floor. A walking stick is an essential accessory, and it's a competition to find the tallest, strongest and thickest fallen branch, to aid them on the way home. 

We were armed with a big bag today as we had a specific mission: scouting for pretty leaves in order to make beautiful nature collages for an art activity later in the day. With summer coming to a close there were plenty of leaves available in gorgeous red, orange, yellow and green tones, some soft and smooth, some fuzzy in texture, whilst others were crisp and crunchy to the touch. We hit gold with a couple of perfect pigeon feathers and pinecones. Our foraging complete, hills climbed and dens explored, we descended back down to the canal walk. It was busy on the water today with not one but two different barges travelling up and down. Greetings traveled across the rippling water with everyone madly waving at each other. A walker joined us and the children loved having a pet with their dog. We now reach the bridges and the lock and its time to turn round. All this way along the opposite bank there are lovely canal side gardens with private boats and cannoes moored.

Now returning to the steps leading home, we now turn right. This is a completely different adventure, with overhead bridges, it's a little more built up and not as pretty either side of the bank. It is a popular side for fishermen however, and we pass quite a few as we creep quietly by them, careful not to disturb the fish. We pass a farm and hear the dogs, chickens and roosters as we walk by. There's now a remote wide dirt pathway alongside the canal and depending on the time of year there are a mass of muddy puddles or dry dust bowls, both of which are very popular. If you're lucky there will be a friendly horse tethered on the side who is always grateful for a carrot or apple snack. We head to the horse field and climb/lean against the metal gate. They venture over sometimes in our direction for a pet and a carrot or apple, and other times they remain in the distance. 

We love that we have this all just a few moments from our front door and we try to take full advantage no matter the time of year. Last winter at 5pm in the gathering dusk, we wrapped up against the cold, grabbed a flash light each and headed (via the road this particular time) to the wide dirt path to enjoy the gigantic muddy puddles. That was an insane evening, the mud was ridiculous and the children were a state, as were we from splash backs. When it got too dark and cold we squelched back home, stripped off coats and boots outside the back door and headed in for hot chocolate, marshmallows and a warm bubble bath before bed. There was so much laughter and shrieks that night, the farm dogs were barking away and we were muddy top to toe. The epitome of childhood. 

The exploration of nature is a fun, free family activity, great for mental health and the imagination, and for us in particular an adventure lies around every canal bend. 

Once home and rested, the memories are revisited whilst we sit at the kitchen table and get stuck in with glue and paper and our myraid of leaves and other goodies, chatting away about our adventures and squabbling over precious items. It is great to repeat this activity over the year, so to compare spoils across the seasons.