A strand devoted to rocks and all things related. The first encounter – a massive three ton block of coal on the Cardiff Bay Barrage. The second – the simple joys of throwing stones into the sea. We examine stones, listen for splashes and build pictures with them in the sand. Finally, on the penultimate day of the challenge we have a go at looking for fossils on Penarth beach… and find some.

229 – Encountering a massive bit of coal on the Cardiff Bay Barrage

Saturday 17 May. Sunny. 20°C

We’re out on the Cardiff Bay Barrage and looking for a nature challenge to do. We spot a coot nesting and lots of half submerged tree trunks but they don’t feel exciting enough. Then we find THE COAL! It’s been there for years and I’d stopped noticing it but once we started again we were fascinated. A three ton block of anthracite coal. B is fascinated. She’s been down The Big Pit recently with school and knows about coal now. But knowing about it and seeing a bit this big is something else.

We prod it and explore the sparkling bits. She doesn’t think it’s real (“is it plastic”) and is delighted that it is. I think it’s time we maybe explored more rocks so I’m making a new strand in it’s honour. It’s small now but I think it will grow!

204 – Throwing pebbles into the sea

Wednesday 11 June. Sunny. 23°C

A few weeks on and we’ve failed to do anything more with stones yet so I’m adding this joyful challenge in here. B’s favourite activity when she was about three on warm sunny days with high tides… she may be ten but it still appeals.

When she was little, we’d fill a bucket with little pebbles and take them for a walk along the esplanade. It’s amazing what you can do with a bucket of small stones. She’d sit for hours on the pier feeding them through the slats in the concrete floor and into the sea. My favourite was standing on the steps down to the sea and throwing them in. She’d toss handfuls at a time and laugh as they made lots of different splashes in the water. When she ran out, we’d wade into the water to scoop up some more.

Now, with years of experience behind her, she has slightly more sophisticated games. She tosses them down the steps to see how many bounces they do before they hit the water. Then she follows them, playing chase with the waves. Before we graduated to little stones, she’d collected lots of medium sized ones, made them into a pyramid and then thrown them as far as she could. We did a throwing competition. I used to let her win, now I can’t beat her.

Stones are pretty marvellous really. I don’t know why we let so many weeks go by without them.

178 – Examining pebbles, and listening for the splash

Sunday 6 July. Cloudy. 20°C

It’s Sunday afternoon and B WANTS to go to the beach. This is an upturn. She’s normally inexplicably hostile until she gets there. She’s got a plan… “I want to go and play with the pebbles again – I’ve got an idea”.

She’s got a new game. She finds pebbles, divides them according to size, then we have to take turns to thrown them in and the other closes their eyes and tries to work out the size and number of them by the splash. I like this idea but it’s quite hard if you throw them all at once. We simplify – we just throw one and we have to work out how big it is. I still don’t think we’ve perfected the process. In the end we take some to the pier and throw them off the side. We don’t really crack the game but throwing the stones is still fun. We could keep going but we run out. Clearly, we should have brought the bucket. I do get her to look at the stones too. We’re no closer to being able to identify them but we might get there next time.

132 – Making a picture/maze out of stones

Wednesday 20 August. Cloudy. 20°C

B’s idea this. We’re hanging out on the beach looking for stuff to do. She suggests making something you have to walk round. We start out with fairy rings but then think it could be a face… once built from big stones she closes her eyes and I have to guide her round it without stepping on a stone. It’s really hard… and there’s a proud moment when she succeeds.

2 – Looking for fossils on the beach

Tuesday 30 December. Sunny. 4°C

It’s the penultimate day of the 365 day nature play challenge and we still haven’t found a fossil. A bit like the kite flying, this one has been there as an aspiration for ages. Back in February we did some beach combing and rock smashing and wished we knew how to find them. Now, thanks to some help from the wonderful women of wild space we think we have a better idea.

To make it more scary, ITV Wales have said they’d like to film us. This raises the pressure on the fossil identification front. We get down to the beach early in the hope we can find at least one before they arrive and amazingly we do. The first one we find has dents like a plant was stuck in it. Then we find another that looks like a leaf.

B branches off and finds little ones with holes in the middle and crystals inside. Not sure these are fossils but they’re very cool. Some googling suggests they might be hag stones. B likes the idea that they could be used for making spells. I find what I think is some fossilised wood. B smashes a lot of stones to see what’s inside, mainly if it looks like they’ll have crystal in them.

Finally we find what, with hindsight, was probably some flint and she starts drawing ammonites on the pebbles. Why find a fossil when you can make your own?