Those lovely people at Green People (who produce organic beauty products for all the family) have a great gift set for your dog!

It's called the allPaws Fetch Me a Bath Dog Gift Set, and it includes:

• allPaws Scent Free Dog Shampoo 200ml
• allPaws Wild Mint Dog Shampoo 200ml
• A natural rubber ball

It's normally £30 but it's on offer for £20, saving you £10.  However, these are selling fast, so don't delay - race over to Green People here!

If they could talk to the animals, walk with the animals – well, you can walk with the animals!

There are over 20 animal walking experiences available through Virgin Experience Days – experiences to get you walking and meeting new animal friends!

Meet, Walk and Feed the Donkeys for Two at Lucky Tails Alpaca Farm, -
a great way to see the beautiful Warwickshire countryside!
£40.00 - Find out more

There's Alpaca Trekking and Entry to Eagle Heights Wildlife Foundation for Two
with incredible views of the Darent Valley.  
£70.00 - Find out more

The range of animals varies, but there are opportunities to walk with donkeys, alpacas, llamas, huskies, and even sheep and pigs and have a gentle stroll with pygmy goats! 

There's a Llama Trekking Experience Day For Two in Northamptonshire
There's one llama between two people on this 3.5 mile trek 
£120.00 - Find out more

And if you love to be active outdoors, you could look at trying your hand at yoga with goats in Suffolk (yes, honestly), and a hawk walk.

There's Yoga with Goats for Two in the Suffolk Countryside
when you can meet some social, intelligent and affectionate goats
£36.00  Find out more

What's more, you can enjoy 15% off with Virgin Experience Days (even on special offers) thanks to our exclusive code, GMS8F2CX.  It's valid until 31.1.23 and it's site wide, apart from excluded products.

Fly off to Virgin Experience Days to see their range of animal walking experiences here

If you've ever wanted to have a go at a Hawk Walk, you could take a look at BuyaGift who have a 2 for 1 Hawk Walk for Two at Hawksflight Falconry in Staffordshire!

Enjoy a 2 for 1 Hawk Walk for Two at Hawksflight Falconry
It was £70.00, now £45.00! 
And use our exclusive code AHW2022 to get 15% off!
The code is site wide and applies to special offers - it's valid to 31.12.22
but it excludes some products.

This is an opportunity to get an introduction into the world of falconry and meet some  amazing birds of prey! 

There's a warm welcome when you arrive, and a talk and a guided tour of the centre.  Then meet the magnificent Harris Hawks, before you put on a falconers glove and head off for an exciting hour-long walk through the pretty Staffordshire countryside.

The hawks follow on and you can call them down to your gloved fist for a treat!  An incredible hands-on experience!

Fly off to BuyaGift to find out more about this experience
Don't forget code AHW2022 will get you 15% off!

Find out more from BuyaGift!

Prevention is better than cure, so they say, and those lovely people at online pet store Viovet have come up with 4 simple steps to a healthy lifestyle for your pets.  Actually, reading them, they could equally apply to people as well.

There are lots of ways you can help your beloved pets keep well and fit – feeding them the right food, for a start e.g. if you want to give your dog a chocolate treat, make sure the chocolate is made for dogs and not chocolate that you and I would eat.  Chocolate for humans can be lethal for dogs, and pet food makers have come up with chocolate treats for dogs. 

Find out more about Viovet's  healthy lifestyle in 4 easy steps

Viovet’s four steps to a healthy lifestyle are as follows – you can get more information from their website, as they cover questions such as how much exercise does your dog need, what sort of diet is best, there’s information on raw feeding,

Get active

Regular walkies for you and your woof will help you both with your weight, getting out and about, and mental health as you meet fellow dog walkers and of course everyone wants to say hallo when you’ve got a pooch on the end of a lead.   Please respect the countryside and keep dogs on leads if around livestock and wildlife, however well behaved your dog is.  It’s also very helpful to continue your dog’s training when you’re out and about – we used to train ours in the middle of fields, in the woods – we were both exhausted when we got home!

Diet

As I type this, I’m tucking into my morning coffee and a gorgeous shortbread biscuit (shall I have another one? My jeans are suggesting it wouldn’t be a good idea… Everything in moderation…)

Please make sure your pets, livestock and wildlife have plenty of fresh water available to them – this means cleaning out water bowls and baths regularly.  Vet advice is always helpful, but Viovet have plenty of pointers on their blog about decoding your dog’s diet, choosing the right commercial diet and looking at raw feeding.

Tackling anxiety and stress

Some pets get more anxious than others, and lockdown hasn’t helped if your dog is staying at home and you are now back at the office.  Viovet has some tips on how to help with separation anxiety such as leaving the radio on. Start going out without them for short periods of time so that they get used to it. 

Get regular check-ups

At the moment with so many of us finding things really tight financially, vet visits may be the last thing you want to do, but please keep up to date with vaccinations and checks – a problem spotted and dealt with earlier can be far less costly to deal with than leaving it in the hope it will go away.  Grooming your pet regularly will help you get used to feeling for anything unusual that crops up e.g. any lumps and bumps that are new and will need you to keep an eye on them. 

The Pet Food Manufacturers Association have a way you can check if pets are overweight – keeping their weight at the right amount will help keep your pet healthy.

Viovet have lots of ways they can help you, and there’s plenty of advice on all sorts of pet related health issues.  Don’t forget the PDSA and Blue Cross have help for people who meet their criteria for free or subsidised vet care.

By the way, Viovet is celebrating their 16th birthday - and there's 25% off on their website!!!  They have products for cats, dogs, horses, small pets and for you! 

The Canal and River Trust look after our canals and rivers (with lots of help from volunteers, in case you’re looking for something to do in your spare time, which makes a difference).

And they have launched a #PlasticsChallenge.

They say if everyone took their litter home with them and picked up even just ONE piece of plastic every time they visited, our canals and rivers could be free of litter within one year!

The Trust does an amazing job looking after the canals and rivers – but nonetheless, these beautiful places are in danger from mindless pollution!

Water birds make nests from pieces of plastics.   Aquatic invertebrates ingest plastic – and that means that small fish ingest them too, as they are higher up the food chain.

So everyone needs to get involved and pick up litter.  Every year, about 14 million pieces of plastic end up in our canals and rivers.  We need to reduce the plastics in these places.

The Canal and River Trust has advice on doing this safely and makes it very clear that you should NOT go into the water to collect plastic out.

Don’t let litter mean it’s over for wildlife.  Please pick up litter or share the information about the campaign!   

Please pledge your support for this #PlasticChallenge.

Wow, if you're looking for a gift or a card for an animal lover, why don't you take a look at Cardology?  

This is the Dressage Pop Up Card

They produce 3D pop up cards, which are hand made, and quite amazing! 

There's a Cat Tree Pop Up Card
The cards are kind of half gift, half card!

Got a friend who loves llamas?

And they've got a great selection of animal cards, including cards for horse lovers, dog lovers, cats, farm animals, bears, labradors, owls, and even a dinosaur! 

You could support Battersea Dogs and Cats Home
with the purchase of a Battersea card

There's also a Highland cow!

Visit Cardology here to see all their cards!

If you love nature and wildlife, and want to discover more about wetlands in particular, please take a stroll around the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust’s website and especially their Discover Wetlands pages.

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) is the UK’s leading wetland conservation charity.  And they are working "to create a world where healthy wetland nature thrives and enriches lives."

There’s lots to discover and learn about wetlands from their website and there are things to do, for all the family – and this is a great chance to boost your knowledge about vital wetlands and what they are and why they are so very important.  Sadly, they are often overlooked and seen as “wasteland” but they are critical for both wildlife and people and the good of us all.

Amongst the  things to do, you’ll find a series of Make it videos.  They are all short in length and easy to follow, and they give you lots of ways to encourage wildlife to your garden so that you can help all garden wildlife. 

Make it with help from the WWT - they have got some great videos to help you!

The WWV videos show you how to make things such as...

• A mini pond
• A toad hall
• A LEGO bird table
• A bird feeder
• Yoru own binoculars
• A bird hide
• A water cycle in a jar
• Your own t-shirt bag
• An upcycled bird feeder
• A bug hotel
• Eggy cress aniamls
• A nature star

They all come with an activity sheet in PDF format that you can download, too

The Discovery Wetlands pages also have quizzes you can do plus for teachers and parents (or I presume anyone who would like to do it), there’s a 12 week home-learning programme with everything you need to teach key science and geography topics at home!

Don’t forget that the WWT has a number of different wetland centres you can visit around the UK – you can find the one closest to you here.

Help our wetlands!  They need your support

Please, please may I urge you to respond to WWT's call to give the creations of wetlands our support? Wetlands Can is asking for all our support (signatures) for the creation of 100,000 hectares of healthy wetlands – including in urban areas – to help fight today’s wellbeing, climate and nature crises.

Find out more about Wetlands Can here

Pledge your support for Wetlands Can here

Images on this blog entry ©WWT

It's National Marine Week from the 23rd July to the 7th August 2022, so a good chance to take a look at the Wildlife Trust's website and find out all about it!

The week celebrates all things marine, and it doesn't last a week - it lasts for 15 days to allow for the variation of tide times around the UK. 

Find out more about National Marine Week

There are events taking place around the UK coasts, but wherever you are, there will be things you can do such as:

1.  Use less plastic

2.  Do a litter pick or a beach clean

3.  Find out what you can about the threats facing marine life and what you can do to help - it's amazing what you can do from a distance!

4.  Conserve water.   Wildlife everywhere needs water and many streams and rivers are beginning to run dry.  PLEASE save water and don't waste it.  We've put a bucket on the floor of our kitchen ready to gather water we've had to run while we wait for it to get hot or cold.  We then empty the bucket on the garden.

5.  Join your local Wildlife Trust and see what you can do to support them.  Find your local Wildlife Trust here

6.  Donate to an appeal.  Iv'e just donated to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust for their Dolphin and Porpoise Appeal as a birthday present for my husband who loves all things marine. 

7.  Find out about seagrass conservation and why it matters. 

8.  Take part in the Big Seaweed Search and help monitor the effects of environmental change on Britain's sealife by exploring the seashore and recording the living seaweeds you find there.

9.  Get involved in The Great Global Nurdle Hunt which takes place from 19th September to 17th October 2022.  Nurdles are small plastic pellets about the size of a lentil.  Billions are used annually to make most of our plastic products and many end up washing up on our shores.  Find out all about it here

10.  Buying sun tan cream?  Buy a sun tan lotion that's reef safe from organic beauty product company Green People. The company works with the Marine Conservation Society to ensure their natural sun creams don't harm the environment so their organic sun care products are Oxybenzone-free, Octinoxate-free and reef-safe.

11.  Read their 8 things you can do about climate change 

Visit the National Marine Week here

We have done lots of things to encourage wildlife into our garden in the last few years and we've been rewarded with lots of different species of birds.   We've also had a frog or two, and bees and butterflies, dragonflies and a couple of hedgehogs.  

Our neighbour is very good with identifying different types of birds and says he's spotted over 60 species of our feathered friends in the neighbourhood which is really good to hear.

Rewild your garden with tips from Springwatch

So far, in our garden we've....

• Put up a log pile (or more accurately, we've put a pile of logs in a quiet corner which the insects seem to like
• Put out a hedgehog house with a water bowl (also in a quiet corner so that the hedgehogs can have some peace)
• Stuck up a little bee house and a butterfly hotel
• Planted lots of flowers for wildlife - ones the bees and butterflies will LOVE!
• Put out two or three bird feeders
• Dug out a very small wildlife pond which we did in lockdown.  
• Let our garden overgrow in some parts and let the lawn grow, grow, grow

We love looking out of the window to see who is in the garden paying a visit and I'm sure there's more we can do to encourage the wildlife.  

Top 10 patio plants for bees

If you're looking for hints and tips, and ways to get started, a great place to start is the RHS website.  They have a particular section of the site for wildlife gardening and however much you have done already or want to do, there could be something there to spark off an idea or an activity.

Head off here to see their section on Wildlife Gardening.  Take it a step at a time;  it's the sort of thing you could do a step a month.

By the way, you could do something as simple as pot a plant for pollinators - just get a pot and stick some bee and/or butterfly friendly flowers in it.  All you need is the pot, soil, compost (and you can make your own) the seeds and a small space, so it's very easy to do.

This year, Mental Health Awareness Week focuses on connecting with Nature.

There are many benefits of having contact with nature, whether you spend time in the garden looking at the sky or growing flowers and planting vegetables, or go on a walk through woods or up hills, or have a weekend glamping  or forest bathing!

Do some Mindfulness Meditation for two in Kent, from BuyaGift
Use the code 15AHW2021 and get 15% off!**
Plus we will make a donation to the Woodland Trust  

Spending time with nature can have many benefits:

1. You can meet other people especially if you volunteer for a conservation charity
2. You can improve your physical health by going on walks or being physically active through gardening
3. Volunteering for a nature charity can really give you a feel-good feeling – you’ve made a difference and can meet like-minded people who want to do the same
4. You could end up going where people don’t always go – sort of getting behind the scenes with nature!
   
   
   Enjoy a Two Night Break in The Nest Tree House, Devon, from Red Letter Days
   Use the code AHW2021RED and get 15% off!** Plus we will make a  donation to the Woodland Trust  
   
   
   
5. There are some amazing nature experiences you can enjoy
6. Nature can help you reduce stress  and help you relax
7. Nature can help you escape from everyday life – you really can get away from it all
8. You could do an activity that you don’t normally do, such as forest bathing or walking with an alpaca or llama!
   
   
   
   

   Lucky Tails Alpaca Farm Entry with Alpaca Walk
   for Two Adults and Two Children from BuyaGift
   Use the code 15AHW2021 and get 15% off!**
   Plus we will make a donation to the Woodland Trust  
   

9. You can see some amazing wildlife.
10. You can also enjoy nature on the water, so to speak, with some time on a boat!
11. You can combine being social, having exercise, getting fresh air, helping nature and escaping from the day’s routine all in one go!
    
    
    
    Go Forest Bathing in Sussex
    Use the code AHW2021RED and get 15% off!** Plus we will make a donation to the Woodland Trust  
    
    
12. Enjoy a holiday with nature at its heart – you could go glamping in the UK or spend time on a farm in Devon!
    
    
    
    Go stargazing in Wales!
    Use the code AHW2021RED and get 15% off!** Plus we will make a donation to the Woodland Trust   
    
    
13. Look up at the sky!  Spend an hour stargazing and be in awe of the beautiful stars in the sky. 
14. You can exercise your senses if you listen to the sounds of nature, look closely at its colours and detail, smell the scent of nature, taste vegetables and fruit and hug a tree! 

 Enjoy the natural world and improve your wellbeing!  

Buy an experience from Red Letter Days or Buy A Gift
and we will make a donation to the Woodland Trust!

**Codes are valid until 31 December 2021.  Non-discounted products do not apply  apart from that, the codes are site wide!