Blog every day in August: Nature

This month I am taking part in Yummy Mummy in Training’s ‘Blog every day in August’ challenge. Read all my posts to date here.

Day 12’s theme is ‘nature’.

Today’s nature theme made me reflect on all the different ways in which we as a family interact with nature on a daily basis. I could think of the following:

Our frequent trips to nearby Dunham Massey, an amazing deer park with lots to see and do, and lots of space to run around in. We have our little ritual on our trips there – have a picnic near the play area, feed the ducks, go for a long walk or visit the flower garden, and finish with an ice cream (and coffee for me, of course). Oh – and spot some birds along the way. My partner’s mother is our family bird expert, so our two-going-on-three-year-old has got to know quite a few by now, for example coots, moorhens and nuthatches.

Visits to other local parks, involving many turns on the swings and slides, dog spotting, bird spotting, squirrel spotting and general flower spotting (“I can smell something, Mummy!”, “Yes, it’s those lovely pink flowers!”)

Playing in our own back garden, which usually involves chucking as many toys as possible onto the grass and watching the little ones and friends run round and round and disperse as much energy as possible.

Camping trips (ok- ONE camping trip. We’re not campers, but at least we can say we’ve done it once?).

There’s no doubting that a good, sunny day with time spent outdoors is uplifting.

I like this quote from Margaret Atwood (Bluebeard’s Egg):

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”

Read day 13 here.