Day One – 30 Days Wild Challenge.

I slip through the gate of the small city wildlife garden in the Barbican. The day is warm and there is a gentle breeze. The grasses in the little wildflower meadow wave a greeting as I follow the path round to the little pond.

I can see a frog half submerged in the shallow water, unmoving.

There are tadpoles swimming around some water plants that grow erect and look like miniature trees from prehistory.

A little bird flits over the grasses and perches on a stem.

It is a robin with morsels in its beak.—it turns toward me checking if it’s safe.

Is it safe to continue on to its way to feed its young in the nest?

The Robin is still making up its mind whether to fly to the nest when I am distracted by a damsel fly (I think it’s a damsel fly).

I aim my camera and try to get a clear shot but grasses are in the way (well, that’s what happens) and then it flew off.

So, I sit down on a bench near a blue butterfly on a daisy. We don’t have many blue butterflies in the UK but which one is this? Could it be a Common blue? Or a Holly Blue? I’ve looked it up but they all look a bit alike to me so I can’t be sure—but whichever one it is it’s very beautiful. I’d like to know which one it is though…I know Holly blues eat nectar on flat headed flowers like this daisy…

I know there is a fox somewhere in the undergrowth because I saw him last time I came into this garden—I stumbled upon him as he stumbled upon me when he poked his head out of a wild rose shrub. He (or she) was very handsome. The red fur bright in low evening sunlight. For a moment we looked at each other—then he (or she) was gone. I look at the place where I last saw it, but there is no sign of the fox today.

A bee buzzes into a foxglove and I wonder what type of bee is that? I know the bees for this type of bell-like flower need to have long whatever they’re called to get what they are after—you can probably guess that I have a lot to learn in the knowledge of our wonderful wildlife!— I’ll Google it!

Time for me to go. Once more round this small gem of a wildlife space and past the hide to the gate.

The wildflower meadow has replaced the yawn lawn that used to be here in a remarkable and wonderful way. Many more such spaces need to be rewilded.

I remember when the garden was just a barren patch of mown grass. And there used to be a small hut (used by the YMCA) but nothing else. Part of the land was built upon to provide sheltered housing. I am so glad they didn’t build on all of it. Leaving room for wildlife.

I exit the garden to the strains of a trilling blackbird song accompanied by the gentle soughing of the grasses waving farewell in the soft breeze.