The Natural Navigator» hill

The Sky Clears

admin — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 07:44:41 +0000

Awoke this morning and took the newest member of the family, a miniature Schnauzer puppy called Dreyfus, out for his constitutional.

Then it was time to look southeast and to watch Virgo melt back into the dawn light as Venus rose above the thin slither of a waning crescent moon. Below them pink and orange light bounced through under the dark blue sky and above the white of the hills.

My kind of music. Probably what Dreyfus was thinking too.

The Big Thaw

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 11:59:46 +0000

The snow is melting away, but not at the same speed everywhere. The warmer wind which is blowing from the southeast today is leaving green swathes wherever it reaches. In this photo, which is taken looking east, the snow in the top right corner is being sheltered by woodland, but the snow to the left is also being left relatively untouched by the same wind because it is partly in the lee of the hill, but also because the woodland to the left of the picture is forcing the airflow up over it. In aviation terms the wind appears to be performing a ‘touch-and-go‘, coming into land before taking off again straight away.

The Art of Not-Blogging

admin — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:39:55 +0000

The Gooleys were camping on the Isle of Wight over the weekend. It was great weather, the few hours of rain that are necessary to make it feel like proper British camping kept themselves to late at night and early in the morning, which was considerate. A few observations will creep into the blog in due course, but to save me a bit of time as I work to catch up on some emails, below is one that artfully saved me the need to blog properly. Thank you, Rob.

Tristan,

I hope you are well.

Emily and I attended your course at West Dean some months ago, and since then we have spent much time working out north from south based on the “tick” shaped branch formations.

I recall you showing us many pictures of trees and asking us to determine directions based on the tick shape. And I have now something to add to your collection of pictures.

While walking through the Tate Gallery today I came across this painting. This picture is a view over the Thames from Richmond Hill, painted in the early 19th century. If you’ve ever been on Richmond Hill, you would know that this painting looks to the west. But even if you didnt know this, there are two ways of working out directions. First, the little note underneath the painting says this is a view to the west! Secondly and of more relevance to natural navigation is the way the branches come out of the trunks. The tree on the far left shows the best example of the “tick” shape from which you can draw a south/north line, south is to the left, north to the right, and west straight ahead!. I was very impressed with Turner’s attention to detail!.

http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=14761&searchid=30595&tabview=image

I hope this is of some interest to you.

Kind regards
Rob Worthington

Heat, Wind and Chillies

admin — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:50:00 +0000

When talking about heat and wind in the context of chillies, there is a risk that we might start to think some very un-navigational thoughts…

… however, this is a risky business, so here are two jalapeno chillies. One lived its life in a south-facing greenhouse, the other lived near it, outside near a south-facing wall. They both received identical amounts of sunlight. They both grew in the same soil and received plenty of water. The only serious differences to their environments were the temperature and wind exposure.

It is not too hard to see that nature is quite fussy about its environment and it is this fussiness that can give us a helping hand. It is sometimes possible to deduce useful things about the elements from two examples of the same species. One big example of this can sometimes be found in the different look and feel of two sides of the same hill or mountain.