Red Squirrel in Wildzone Cumbria
The Wildzone Cumbria is challenging parents around the country to look each other in the eye and admit whether they have ever truly introduced their children to Autumn’s ‘Delightful Dozen Diversions’ during what it has dubbed ‘Red October’.
These twelve treats are as exciting for toddlers as for teenagers and will bring out the wild child in adults and kids alike. They start with collecting and playing conkers, heading off on a forest trail in Whinlatter or Grizedale to test each other at leaf identification and making leaf jewellery, whether that’s a golden and red necklace or a quirky yellowy brooch.
The next three are collecting twigs to race down a stream or maybe the River Eden, seeking out acorns and fir cones to see who can create the biggest stash and making beautiful, natural pictures from leaves collected in the woods, whether you choose to create the sun or the moon, a boat on the ocean or a bright sunflower.
There’s then the fun of making leaves rustle and whoosh as you kick them around with your traditional or brightly-coloured-spotty wellies, making a sycamore leaf fly, as if by magic, and beachcombing for objects that seem just as precious as pirate treasure.
Finally, there’s the thrill of learning to use binoculars and spotting a cute red squirrel up a tree in the Wildzone Cumbria, watching cormorants roost or dive for fish in beautiful and mystical Ullswater, or getting them trained on seals or even porpoises off Cumbria’s wild coastal shores.
When you add the buzz of taking photos of flora and fauna in Cumbria’s stunning lakes, mountain and coastal landscapes and uploading them at www.wildzonecumbria.org and that of learning how to skim a stone across a lake’s smooth autumnal surface for the first time, it’s a great enrichment exercise for any kid’s childhood and one they will never forget.
Wildzone Cumbria makes it easy for parents to join the hunt for Red October fun like this by giving them events to enjoy in Cumbria’s wild forests, on its wild beaches and beside its wild lakes and rivers. It also has some pretty wild places to stay.
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