Rustic Retreats

12/07/2025

12/07/2025

‼️Important Weather Update‼️☀️
With temperatures set to rise over the coming days🥵, we’re keeping a close eye on the forecast. While alpacas are hardy animals, high heat and humidity can put them at risk of heat stress or heat stroke — and their welfare is always our top priority.

We’ll be reviewing conditions daily and will contact all customers with any changes to the date or time of their pre-booked treks. Thank you for your understanding and support in keeping our animals happy and healthy!

10/07/2025

Hidden among the mossy outcrops of Derbyshire’s Peak District, England, lies this uncanny natural formation—dubbed “The Eye of the Earth” by locals and wanderers alike. Though its precise age is unknown, this geological oddity likely formed over millennia through the slow erosive action of water on sandstone bedrock, enhanced by mineral leaching that stained its concentric rings.

What startles visitors isn’t just the perfect roundness of the “iris,” but how convincingly it resembles a real eye—complete with sclera, pupil, and glistening surface. Its hypnotic gaze seems almost aware, as if the land itself is watching, silently recording the passage of time.

09/07/2025

Did you know that Holly trees switch genes on to make their leaves spiky when nibbled by deer? This defense mechanism helps protect the tree from herbivore pressure. The upper leaves on taller trees have smooth edges, while the lower leaves are prickly. Plants are amazing at adapting to their environment! 🌳🦌🍃

08/07/2025

During Wimbledon, approximately 55,000 tennis balls are used, and these are creatively upcycled into tiny homes for harvest mice, a small native UK rodent.

After the tournament, the used tennis balls, made of rubber and felt, are collected and transformed into cozy shelters by organizations like the British Wildlife Centre.

The balls are hollowed out or modified to create safe, insulated nesting spaces for the mice, providing protection from predators and harsh weather.

This innovative initiative not only reduces waste but also supports conservation efforts for harvest mice, whose populations are declining due to habitat loss.

07/07/2025

🐛 Did You Know? Crickets Can Tell You the Temperature! 🌡️

Crickets aren’t just known for their chirping—they’re actually little living thermometers! The speed of a cricket’s chirp is directly linked to the air temperature. In fact, you can estimate the temperature in degrees Celsius by counting the number of chirps they make in 25 seconds and then dividing that number by 3.

👉 For example:
If a cricket chirps 120 times in 60 seconds, that’s about 40 chirps every 20 seconds.
(40 ÷ 3 ≈ 13°C)

This fascinating relationship is called Dolbear’s Law and has been used by naturalists for over a century to track temperatures using the natural world.

So next time you hear crickets chirping on a summer evening, you’re actually listening to nature’s own weather report! 🌙🎶

07/07/2025

A few snaps from some of our new alpaca trekkers this weekend - and some returning customers!😀🦙

Make sure to book your animal experience with us from our website in time for the summer holidays☀️

To book visit: https://rustic-retreats.uk/animal-experiences/

☀️

06/07/2025

Misty’s Top Tip for Hot Days! ☀️🐾
Misty has been feeling the heat this week and, being the clever girl she is, managed to find the perfect way to cool down… by hopping straight into the animal troughs! 💦😄

Anyone else got a four-legged friend who loves a cheeky splash? 🐶