Autumn Equinox 2023

 Saturday 23rd September 2023

For the last few years I have endeavoured to get outside with Bear on the equinox and solstice dates, usually involving a picnic and an afternoon roaming around somewhere and checking out the seasonal changes. Over the last few years we have found ourselves on the beach in Withernsea, in Dinnington Community Woodland and Shire Brook Valley Nature Reserve. The first year we were on the beach with Nannie and Pops, and last couple of years we have been out alone as the equinox has landed on a week day and Daddy has been busy... We had a great time every year and it was something that I promised myself I would keep up :)

This year, the equinox fell on a Saturday, which meant we could spend it with Daddy, and this year, we invited friends too! We planned a picnic and a scavenger hunt in Clumber Park and met our besties there for what was meant to be a couple of hours of fun in the sun, and we spent over six hours there together :) We have definitely met our people in the Wilkinsons!

Our morning started with some map reading skills to figure out where we were, where we parked and where we were going. Bear loved looking for the right places on the map and even worked out which path we had taken when we had worked out where some of the places were.

Once we had located friends we went on an Autumn Equinox Scavenger Hunt, which included looking for acorns, mushrooms, conkers and fallen leaves and then set ourselves up for a picnic in the sunshine, which came out beautifully for us I might add! Once the picnic had been devoured, the littlest two of our group had some fun on the picnic blanket and the biggest did some playing... they played with a frisbee, dug in some mole hills and went rolling down the hill together. 

The friendship that is blooming between Bear and A is beautiful and I love how much fun they have together. They were filthy by the time they were finished... #wildandfreechildren

Ice cream and a play in the woodland playground followed this and the The Cub got some freedom in his new shoes to do some exploring. He loves getting out of the pram now that he is on his feet, and he is more and more confident every day, he's practically walking already! 

With it being a Saturday, the playground was very busy and it wasn't long before the grown ups needed to escape, so we headed to the lake to feed the ducks where we fed the swans, the geese and the few ducks that dared to brave the geese, and we witnessed the most epic goose fight. There were shocked people, both adults and children, everywhere, and then there was my son and his daddy, egging them on shouting 'FIGHT'!

From here, Bear decided that we needed to find a good sit spot so that we could read the autumnal book that I had taken with us. Usually, I take the Brambly Hedge seasonal story to read, however they are quite long, so I'd taken something different this year and it went down brilliantly. Bear picked a spot in the shade under a big oak tree and we got our rainbow picnic blanket back out to lie on while I read Silver the Shrew to them.

After this we headed for a bench to feed the littlest of our group and Bear, A and their daddies had fun playing in the grass. They ran around a lot, did some rolie polies, climbed all over one another, hid behind trees, hugged a tree and generally laughed a lot. It was amazing to watch as the littlest got fed and The Cub snoozed in the pouch.

Before we knew it, six hours had gone by, and we all needed to be heading home for some tea, much to the wild ones' disgruntlement as they were having far too much fun for that, but all good things must come to an end and we parted ways to end our day, filled with happiness and ready for bed!

Since then we have made a nature journal page for our day in Bear's new book and already read many more autumnal themed books, been on more adventures and been hunting for seasonal changes - more posts to come on all of that soon :)

Until then, enjoy Autumn,

Momma Bear x