The Mini Malpi

#30DaysWild Day 23 – Grow Wild

TWT 30 Days Wild_countdown_23 Have you heard about Grow Wild?

The UK’s biggest ever wildflower campaign it aims to bring people together “to transform local spaces with native, pollinator-friendly wild flower and plants”.

The national outreach initiative of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew tells us that 97% of wild flower meadows have been lost since the 1930s which further impacts on populations of butterflies, bees, pollinating bugs and birds.

Click here to “Sow a Virtual Seed” and “help raise awareness of the importance of wild flowers and their impact on our wellbeing”.

I did (along with, at the time of clicking, 24,589 other people) and I was assigned a Ribwort Plantain.

“Scientifically known only as Plantago lanceolate, this wild flower has over 60 common names including English man’s foot and black jack! Not the prettiest wild flowers, but they’re great for wildlife and an important part of the UK’s grassland”.

#30DaysWild Day 22 – Wildflowers with Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust

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A day out at the Lincolnshire Show afforded the chance to not only meet a range of farmyard animals, take in the fresh air across the Showground’s 200+ acres and explore the celebration of the rural side of our county but it also gave me the opportunity to meet Mark from the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust.

Someone must have let slip about my lack of flower identifying skills as, with the benefit of having their marquee opening on to a small meadow, Mark was offering #30DayWilders the chance to find out more about the wildflowers there.

Introducing me to Lady’s Bedstraw and agrimony, I also learnt that thistles and daisies are related and that each flower head is actually lots of small flowers gathered together to look like one.

I’m now quite tempted to take a magnifying glass out on our walks – thank you Mark!

#30DaysWild Day 21

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Today was predominated by attending a school selection appeal for our eldest and then me rather maturely sulking about the situation.

At the exact time I could have done with the medicinal properties of losing yourself in the wild I chose to hide away inside instead. Silly really.

IMG_8316[1] Still, I amused myself by dressing Faith in her bumble bee nappy and entering one of the latest competitions from Bookstart.

This year’s National Bookstart Week was all about exploring nature and the outdoor world and they’ve put together a list of seven titles in particular that share that theme and you have until 11pm on June 27th, 2017, to enter to win a set.

CompBooks The listed books are What a Wonderful World by Tim Hopgood (Oxford University Press), Kiki and Bobo’s Sunny Day by Yasmeen Ismail (Walker Books), A Busy Day for Birds by Lucy Cousins (Walker Books), Shark in the Park on a Windy Day by Nick Sharratt (Picture Corgi, Penguin Random House), Teddy Picnic by Georgie Birkett (Andersen Press), Look and Say What You See in the Countryside by Sebastian Braun (Nosy Crow) and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury (Walker Books).

Click here to enter.

Are books your thing too?: Have you heard about Authors for Grenfell Tower? The online auction is raising money for the British Red Cross London Fire Relief Fund for residents affected by the Grenfell Tower fire and lots include signed books, promises of naming characters in future titles and agent critiques.

#30DaysWild Day 20 – Colour

TWT 30 Days Wild_countdown_20 One of the best things about #30DaysWild is that it literally encourages you to take time to stop and smell the roses and it makes me much more observant of my immediate environment than I normally am when just getting from A to B.

Britmums, “Britain’s biggest collective of lifestyle bloggers & social influencers”, runs a regular monthly photo prompt challenge with daily themes – #SnapHappyBritMums – and today’s prompt was “Colour”.

And today’s walk to and from a children’s group definitely provided that.

From all shapes and sizes – little and large, fluted and bells, sprays and buds, petals and leaves, striped and spots, short and tall, fuzzy, silky and spiky – and all situations – cultivated and wild, in garden flower borders, hanging baskets, plant pots, peeking over fences, bursting through cracks in pavements, walls and roads reclaiming their natural place in our tarmacked city – my eyes were treated to a full rainbow of colours too.

Numerous shades of green, pinks and purples, oranges, red and black, whites and yellows were all there just for the noticing.

With such a bounty on my doorstep I’m ashamed I cannot put more names to them than I can. I’m fine with the poppies, buttercups, daisies, roses, dandelions, lavenders and ivies of my pathways but would definitely need help identifying some of their neighbours.

If you would like a find identified, be it flora or fauna, then the #30DaysWild community in the Facebook group is definitely a good place to post – full of knowledgeable, helpful and enthusiastic fellow wildlife lovers. In fact I may just pop over there to post a link to this now…

#30DaysWild Day 19 – It’s just too hot!

TWT 30 Days Wild_countdown_19 When the sun makes the slides in the park too hot to use it’s just not fun anymore.

So, as out outdoor efforts were curtailed today, here are some facts about the Sun (which I keep reminding myself that all life on earth is dependent on) that I’ve just learnt courtesy of Google:

The Sun is the star at the centre of our solar system and is responsible for the Earth’s climate and weather. The sun is an almost perfect sphere with a difference of just 10km in diameter between the poles and the equator – SpaceFacts.com

The Sun alone contains 99.8% of the total mass in the Solar System. In terms of size, the Sun has a diameter of roughly 1.4 million kilometers (870,000 miles). To put this in perspective, this is almost 110 times the diameter of the Earth. What this means is that about one million Earth’s could fit inside the Sun – theplanets.org

Astronomers think that the Sun (and the planets) formed from the nebular about 4.59 billion years ago. Its temperature is 5,500 degrees Celsius on the surface and a whopping 15.6 million degrees Celsius at the core. Light from the Sun reaches the Earth in just 8 minutes! – CBBC Newsround

Hopefully tomorrow I shall be Googling “facts about cool breezes”.

#30DaysWild Day 18 – Thirst quenching

TWT 30 Days Wild_countdown_18 A very cute photo of a hedgehog popped up on my Facebook timeline earlier today.

Posted by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society it urged its readers to “Please please pop bowl/s of water out for hedgehogs (and other wildlife) in this blistering heat”.

WaterDish

Turns out we haven’t got that many shallow dishes but the minis play kitchen equipment and craft supplies came to the rescue to help us show a little love to any potential furry visitors.

Half-sized knights are riding into Show

If you’re planning to do the Lincoln Knights trail on Wednesday, June 21st and Thursday, June 22nd then you’re going to come up one short unless you head a couple of miles north of the city and walk through the gates of the Lincolnshire Showground.

Designer and illustrator Mel Langton’s Show us what you’ve got knight will be riding into the county’s showcase event, taking the spotlight at the Epic Centre during the Lincolnshire Show, before being returned to her trail position in City Square in Lincoln.

ShowKnight — The “Show us what you’ve got” knight will be travelling to the Lincolnshire Show on Wednesday and Thursday before returning to City Square in Lincoln.

Mel said: “My aim for the Lincolnshire Showground Knight was to show off all that the region has to offer, highlighting the significant role the Showground plays in entertaining and educating locals as well as attracting visitors from further afield.

“It was therefore really important to add lots of detail into the design, representing everything from live concerts to farming shows – you need to look really closely to spot everything.”

The knight with blonde plaited hair and rosy pink cheeks “to show off the healthy glow that you get from the great Lincolnshire outdoors” is far from the only mounted guest to be attending the Show.

Along with the showjumpers, Shetlands, hunters and shires, there are also more than 40 half-sized knights that will need stabling too.

Launching at the Show as part of the wider Knights’ Trail, is the Education Programme, led by the EBP. The trail of one metre high exhibits have been designed by local children from 42 different primary, secondary and special schools. The education Knights will be displayed across the Show before moving to indoor locations throughout the city centre until the start of September when they are returned to the schools.

Jayne Southall, CEO of the Lincolnshire Showground, said: “We cannot wait to unveil our Knight army at the Show, it has been great working with all the different partners involved and we look forward to celebrating what really will be a unique year showcasing Lincolnshire at its best.”

Matt Corrigan, chief executive of Lincoln Business Improvement Group, said: “The Lincolnshire Show is playing an important part in the programme for the Lincoln Knights’ Trail by hosting the launch of the Education Programme. A new addition for the 2017 trail will be the 40 half-sized Knights; and Lincoln BIG is particularly pleased that EBP has involved so many schools across our county.”

For more information on the Education Trail and the schools taking part visit http://the-ebp.co.uk/knights

Of course the Show isn’t just all about its equine exhibitors. Freestyle motocross displays, agricultural machinery as well as farm animals, rural crafts, dog agility, retail therapy, culinary delights and demonstrations and an aviation zone are just some of the other highlights of the two-day event which attracts about 60,000 visitors each year.

If you’re planning on taking your mini ones on either, or both, days this year then you can help build their excitement by downloading an activity pack ahead of the event. Containing a wordsearch, maze, Beasties & Beanstalks game, mini Knights map, colouring in, recipe and details of this year’s Schools’ Challenge, you can start their fun even before they set foot through the gates.

Advanced tickets to the Lincolnshire Show are £19 for adults. Children are £6 and under-fives go free. Family tickets, admitting two adults and up to three children, are £40. Car parking is free on both days.

Visit www.lincolnshireshow.co.uk