I absolutely love this time of year. Despite the rain, the cold, and the fact I can, at times, no longer feel my toes, there is something really special about the Autumn and Winter months. With the onset of Autumn, comes the beginning of welly boots, jumping in muddy puddles and exploring in the woods. Having recently read that children spend less time outside than some prisoners, I for one am keen for my children to spend as much time outdoors as possible.

I am lucky enough that I live in a semi rural location, with lots of beautiful landscapes and places to get out into the great outdoors with my children. Erin loves nothing more than running around in the leaves and searching for fairies (who are apparently hidden everywhere we go!!). I also have a ginormous garden (see The Big Garden Project), and we get a LOT of wildlife coming to visit.

As we are close to the Mere, it is not unusual to see a Heron making its way back from its latest hunt. The scale of these creatures is amazing, and its only when you see one perched on a roof top that you can appreciate just how big they are! We also get a LOT of squirrels – and they are clearly not struggling to find food as they are a little on the tubby side. Erin loves watching the squirrels chase each other around the garden, and climbing up and down our fence panels whilst they play.

Whilst we don’t have a trampoline in our garden, if we did, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few foxes bouncing on it during the night, as our security light is regularly set off by them having a rummage in the leaves!

Rattan Direct recently ran a competition asking people to capture photographs of wildlife and some of the finalists photographs are fantastic.

They are now asking everyone to vote for their favourite photo in order to announce the winner on the 16th December.

My favourite is the cheeky deer! 🙂 Which is yours? VOTE NOW!!!

What wildlife do you get in your garden?

*This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Rattan Direct*