Day 26 Get on your bike

If you haven't discovered it yet the Bristol to Bath cycle path is fantastic, family friendly place to take a closer look at nature. At this time of year the route is full of wild foods, from blackberries to damsons, and apples to elderberries.The flat, traffic free path is an ideal place to take a first bike ride or for those more experienced, to get all the way to Bath from Bristol (or visa versa) stopping at the old railway station cafe on route for refreshments. If I have any left when I get home I love making blackberry muffins with my foraged finds.You can access the cycle path at many points along the route which has been photographed in both directions. Stop off along the way with a picnic and investigate the hedgerows, use the OPAL biodiversity survey to help you identify the different plants that might be growing in them.

Day 18 Street art, old castles, flower barges and picnics

Wow, there's so much going on today in Bristol that you'll need a whole day out to explore it all. So, pack a picnic and head on down to Bristol city centre. First stop should be Castle Park, original site of Bristol castle before it was demolished by Oliver Cromwell. Look for remains of the keep and curtain wall of the C11 Bristol Castle at the north east end of the park. There are also seven Silver Birch trees in memory of the seven beaches of the D-Day landings - see if you can find them all. Much of the park was bombed during the blitz of November 1940 and all that remained was the ruins of the churches of St Peter and St Mary le Port.

Today, Castle park is a great refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city centre and a great place to watch the river. Look out for the 'Ballast Seed garden', a fantastic art project created by Brazillian artist Maria Thereza Alves. Seeds that had been contained in the ballast of boats and had travelled from all over the world, were dumped in the river from 1680 to early 1900's. Maria has managed to collect and sow these seeds to create a magnificent floating garden. 
Whilst you enjoy this original art project use this river birds spotter guide to see how many different birds you can find and then search for a quiet spot to enjoy your picnic. 

Once you've had a good look round head down to Nelson Street and be amazed by the See No Evil street art project. This weekend sees a selection of the world’s best street artists creating a huge outdoor gallery. In addition, science students from Bristol University will be adding their own creations, creating artworks that depict their research topics.

Day 17 Geocaching

Now this is something that I enjoy doing with my own children, you do need a smart phone and it's best if you have the geocaching app but it is so much fun. If you've never tried it, imagine a treasure hunt that covers the whole world but has little gifts everywhere, quite possibly within walking distance from your house. All you need to do is to go to the website, put in your postcode and a map will show you where to look for the nearest geocache.

The idea is that you find the cache (often a small plastic tub), sign in the book, take a little gift and leave a small treasure of your own for the next person. Once you get started you will be hooked! There's lots of variations too, such as 'trackers', these travel from cache to cache and their journey gets logged online so that you can see how far they go.

Try it out, there's loads just in Bristol and Bath city centres so you can make a whole day out of it and get to see some great sites too.

A successful find!