30 Days Wild - Day 27 - Snail Trail

And then the rain came!  After our heatwave of last week where I couldn't move for sweating today the drips are coming from the skies!

Some people may not enjoy the rain but my garden is crying out for it! My water butt is on empty and the grass is curling at the edges. So welcome the rain! It is forecast to continue for a couple of days, which it needs to soak through - the initial downpours just running off the hard earth.

Today in the office, we saw the lightning light up the dark oppressive sky and we jumped as the crack of thunder came immediately behind. The gutter leaked under the deluge with a waterfall outside the door.

Then the snails came out. Outside one of the office windows the foliage has not been cut back for a while and is covering the glass. Three snails made their way across the windowsill to the tender shoots on the other side. My 30 Days Wild act for today was to encourage my colleagues to put down their pens and stop looking at their screens for a few minutes and come to the window to see the snails. They may have thought I was mad but they came and we watched and we chatted about the rain and the snails and how not a ripple could be seen as they slid over the glass.

A nature break without leaving the office.

30 Days Wild - Day 19 - Evening Viewing

As the heat is still rising and the coolest place is my office I haven't even been out for my regular lunchtime walk, or been inclined to go outdoors at all. However, it looked like it might be a nice sunset and by 9pm it was comfortable enough to sit in the garden, so I took my camera and phone out and waited for the sky to colour up for my 30 Days Wild act.

While I was waiting I thought I'd tick off another random act of wildness and check out some webcams and as it was for 30 Days I looked up the Wildlife Trust to see what they had.

How great it is to be able to turn on and watch wildlife that was previously unaccessible. How many people just a few years ago could say they had seen inside a Peregrine nest? Amazing privilege.

Osprey nest at Rutland Water with two chicks.

A barn owl nest at Blue House Farm nature reserve in Essex.

Peregrines on Buckinghamshire County Council's County Hall in Aylesbury.

And the sunset? By now the sky had become streaked with clouds and vapour trails and a strip of orange hung on the horizon. Not a spectacular sunset in the end but such a pretty sky.

30 Days Wild - Day 7 - Work Wildlife

As many of my 30 Days Wild will be spent at work I thought today's challenge would be to see what wildlife and nature I would come across on a typical day at the office.

The building that I work in is in a suburb of the city of Cambridge. It is at the back of a housing estate, next to a primary school.  Until a few years ago it was bordered by fields and farmland with Addenbrooke's Hospital beyond. Then the developers came along with their bulldozers, diggers and big plans! Now there are new houses of all shapes and sizes, a guided busway, new town centre, schools and lots of new hospital buildings. To be fair they have left an area as a nature reserve and a small stream and allotments still run along the back of some of the houses on the estate, but where once we looked out over countryside we now see scaffolding and brick!

The primary school near the office has also expanded but has kept its playing field and we noticed a few months ago that at pair of hares seemed to have moved in. There were hares at one point on the farmland but whether these are the same ones I don't know. I love hares, there is something quite mystical about them and as I pull the car into the car park I often glance over the fence to see if they are about.  Today the weather was brighter, the gardeners were not cutting so I was pleased to see one in the distance. They seem to prefer a certain spot to rest in during the day and, although it is a way back from the fence and path, they are quite obvious against the green grass which is kept cut short. It amazes me how the children and their parents and carers are busy getting to and from school, nobody seems to stop and look. I wonder if the school know they have sitting tenants.

I often go for a quick mile or so walk at lunchtime and sometimes cut through the recreation ground in the middle of the estate. I hadn't been for a few weeks so was happy to see their wildflower patch was in flower. It is such a beautiful addition to the area and one that would be so easy for other parish councils to take on.

Other nature highlights today included a large queen bumble bee trying to get into the office; purchasing BBC Wildlife Magazine; a buzzard hovering over the M11 motorway on the way home; and seeing a beautiful poem on my walking group Facebook page (I think I'll save that one for a rainy day).

30 Days Wild - Day 1 - London Life

Day 1 of 30DaysWild found us in London on a trip to Greenwich to see In The Night Garden Live with our granddaughter! My challenge had been to find signs of urban nature but due to traffic and parking issues time was against us most of the day, and my planned amble through Greenwich park photographing squirrels, birds and butterflies became a mad scramble to get from one place to another!

We used to visit Greenwich when my daughter was at University there. When we had been before the Cutty Sark was under renovation, covered in hording, after it caught fire. Now it has reopened and I have to say it looks magnificent and where once there was dodgy concrete slabs and building debris there is now a clean bright plaza overlooked by this beautiful ship.

I was also really pleased to see a large raised bed planted up with grasses and flowers which buzzed with insects and was a great contrast against the steel and glass on the other side of the river.

As we walked (quickly!) towards Blackheath it had really warmed up and lots of families and tourists were enjoying the park – playing cricket, picnicking, on scooters, bikes and skateboards, walking their dogs and just loving being outdoors. I did see lots of squirrels, birds and butterflies, I just didn’t have time to stop and photograph them!

Countdown to 30 Days Wild

Tomorrow's the start of The Wildlife Trust's Random Acts of Wildness campaign - 30 Days Wild - designed to connect more people with nature and the world around them, encourage people to care about wildlife and the environment and enjoy themselves along the way.

As it happens I will not be at home tomorrow in my own little garden - I'll be In The Night Garden. I am swapping my small rural village on the edge of the fens in Cambridgeshire for the city. We are off for a day in London with my granddaughter to see a Ninky Nonk, Igglepiggle and Upsy Daisy! (If you don't have small children around you regularly you probably haven't a clue what I'm referring to!)

It's a live show taking place near Greenwich Park, a lovely green area of London we used to visit regularly when my daughter was at university. So my challenge for the first day of #30dayswild will be to see what urban wildlife I can find - other than a stray Macca Pakka that is!!