Week 4 had a creative theme, so I wrote a tanka:

Counting garden birds
Filling up the water bowls
Walking through the woods
Small steps to gentle progress
Building a lifetime's habit

And I downloaded a knitting pattern from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, to knit a bittern - a 'knittern' for making later.

In addition, I downloaded 14 spotter sheets for use during different seasons (and therefore encouraging me to go out), plus masks and colouring sheets for our after school club.

Finally, I made a bumblebee felt craft brooch from a kit I'd myself a while ago.




Looking back on the 30 Days Wild challenge, it's been fun and hopefully will encourage me to do more - I always feel it would be a good idea, but finding the necessary motivation is important.  I've become a member of the British Trust for Ornithology (it's not very expensive) and have submitted two weeks' worth of garden bird sightings.  And I'm currently watching the house martins flying around catching flies.

7 books read this month, so 38 for the year and I'm on target!

A Frightfully Fatal Affair by Hannah Hendy
I normally listen to these on audiobook, but for a change I borrowed it from the library.  The next in the Dinner Lady Detectives series.  Entertaining, slightly implausible, but the two dinner ladies are appealing characters, so I enjoyed reading it.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
A look at how Mr Rochester might have found his 'mad' wife in Jane Eyre.  Worth reading, but I didn't feel for Antoinette (Bertha) as I had expected to.

The Dead Witness edited by Michael Sims
A collection of short detection stories for the nineteenth century.  Very few of the stories appealed, and I was left grateful for Sherlock Holmes!

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
The next Murderbot story, which was fun and continued to prove that Murderbot was far better equipped to deal with most things than anyone else.

The Rose Apple Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu
The next in the Su Lin series (which was the Crown Colony series, although the name is no longer accurate), this one is set not in Singapore but in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia.  As always, it's an interesting look at the region in 1947 and I enjoyed the mystery.  I had guessed part of it, but I imagine the reader was supposed to have their suspicions.  

Cyanide in the Sun edited by Martin Edwards
Another of the British Library Crime Classics short story collections.  Not as good as previous books, it may be that the pool of such stories is being drained.

CWA Anthology of Short Stories: Mystery Tour edited by Martin Edwards
Another short story collection, but this time modern short stories.  I enjoyed the majority - in any collection there are going to be some which I don't like, for various reasons, but it was a good batch.


Also, I had a go at the Goodreads Seasonal Challenge for May and June and achieved 5 of the 7 categories:



And here is my book bingo card - I may even finish it next month!

I've been spending quite a lot of time on crafting this month.

I( June crafts )

Here are this month's views.  As can be seen the hot weather is taking a toll on the grass.

( June views )

Change phone provider

I had used the same phone provider since I was working in a company which, amongst other things, provided mobile phones, which meant I got staff rate.  However, since I left in 2018 the price has been slowly rising, so it's no longer a good deal and my data allowance was very limited.

Which was why I finally made the move to change provider - prompted in part by listing this as something to do this year and therefore committing myself to do it!  Having looked at price comparison websites I decided to just go to Tesco, where the staff are helpful, which meant they could do the set up for me.  I'd got a PAC code so within just over 24 hours of buying a new SIM (I'm on SIM only having bought a new phone in January) I have my old number (it's the only number I've ever managed to remember!) it was all set up.  Hooray!

Listen to Delius

There are still Delius' pieces I want to listen to, but for the purpose of this challenge I have listened to several works.  

North Country Sketches
La Calinda
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
Twilight Fancies (song)
Marche Caprice
Sleigh Ride
The Song of the High Hills
The Florida Suite (my favourite so far)
Appalachia
Hiawatha
Brig Fair
Cello Concerto
Spring Morning
Dance Rhapsody No 1 & No 2
Sonata for Strings (both original and Eric Fenby arrangement)
Violin Concerto
Evening Songs