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Today as we drove to sailing we saw a muscovy duck and her ducklings. When we got home I found this website and found out lots of interesting facts about them! https://hedgecombers.com/muscovy-ducks/

As we walked Hugo through the woods, I noticed that whenever Hugo ran through these plants that dust came out of them. I looked when I got home and it's called Orchard grass but I still don't understand why it was making the dust! It was like a magic trick!

When we went for a walk I was sad to see some of the woods had been burnt due to a fire. I was happy to see that something was trying to regrow through the burnt area. But, when I researched the plant it's a western Bracken fern which is a weed that is really difficult to get rid of and cause cancer if eaten!

Whilst at sailing and rigging up my dinghy, I saw this on the hard. I've since had a look on the internet and I think it's an Blue Damselfly. The brown dragonfly was taken on the jetty but I am struggling to name it. I did find out on the internet this fact - 'habitat destruction and the effects of climate change are threatening the survival of a third of Britain's dragonfly species. Data collected by the British Dragonfly Society show 36% of the 39 dragonfly species are in decline.'

20th June. Rosie's friend Nathan wanted to go for another walk with us so this time we shared Hawkeswood with him and his dad. They had never been there before and loved it. It's such a good place for kids to have some freedom to play and explore. Rosie enjoyed walking around the woodland barefoot. Willow gathered some bark, sticks, leaves and bits ready to make a bughotel in her Beavers zoom meeting this Monday. We have a family tradition that on the Solstice we write down intentions of things we would like to bring into our lives and things we would like to let go of. Then we burn them in a fire. Hawkeswood is not an appropriate place for us to have a fire but we wanted to write our intentions on the solstice. So we sat by the stick house and wrote our intentions. Then the next day we had a fire on the beach at Parton in an existing fire pit to burn and release them up in the smoke.

17 June. We have been inspired by a friend's daughter who weaves amazing baskets from fibres she has foraged. We set off on a mission to gather some bramble vines. We were equipt with secatures, gardening gloves and a peice of tarpaulin to strip the thorns off. We decided to go a bit off the beaten track as we didn't want to take them from the paths where people might enjoy eating the berries later in the year. At Walkmill, near the small carpark off the Frizington road, there is what is known locally as "the dip". My understanding is this was once the tip for waste when the area was an open cast mine.. the waste now removed, what is left is what I have always thought would make a lovely natural amphitheatre! Well my friend Sue and I had been walking in Walkmill for around 12 years when last year we heard tell of a "Giant's Bench" and another dip!!! I went searching for it last year with Jon and the kids and found it..there was a little path straight ahead on the far side of the dip..through the trees that we had never noticed as we used to always just go to the left on the main path. It was honestly like walking through the wardrobe to Narnia! After all these years another dip just beyond the first. It was like going to a parallel universe. So for our foraging we decided to return to the Giant's bench and traverse the other dip for only the second time. It was lovely to be back and we gathered some bramble vines.. watch this space for our attempts at weaving. Last time we walked around the first dip to leave our painted stones we heard grasshoppers. The kids searched but couldn't spy any. This time though on the way past the first dip to get to the second Rosie was delighted to find a grasshopper and take a picture of one!

12th June. One of Rosie's friends unexpectedly came to drop some clothes off with his dad after tea. It was a nice evening so I suggested a walk from our house to show them the Woodlands that can be accessed from our street. I was interested to see if we could find away out the side of the woods up onto a different road we had walked up at the weekend. I had wondered if there was a way into the woods from there as we had seen someone appear from that direction once! Willow found an enormous Catkin, the children were excited to find mushrooms and I found a number of plastic rings that hold cans together. I picked them all up as they can be hazardous to wildlife (especially hedgehogs who we know live there!) Nathan and his dad enjoyed exploring the woods. We crossed the stream and climbed up to the top of the bank. There we found a way out of the woods into the graveyard. This increases the potential for circular walks through the woods. A happy discovery!