Last Saturday I spent the morning in London as a guest on BBC Radio 4′s Excess Baggage. In the evening  I led a group on a night walk. The conditions were perfect. We watched as blue turned to orange. Then as the orange faded to dark blue and black we were treated as Arcturus, Deneb, Altair, Vega, Capella and others began to appear. Lurking luminously between the silhouetted branches of a two hawthorns there was a bright white light in the east. It refused to move or twinkle. It wasn’t an aircraft or a star, it was Jupiter rising to rule the sky. We looked at five different methods for finding the North Star.

Thank you to all 400 who came to a Night of Adventure in Bristol on Monday. Great cause, great audience, fun night. If this night comes to a town near you I’d really strongly recommend going if you can, there isn’t anything else remotely like it in the calendar that I am aware of. Well done Alastair Humphreys!

On Wednesday I submitted the edited copy for my next book. That night I waved a fond goodbye to All Roads Lead Home, the series which has hopefully given a couple of million their first taste of the joys of natural navigation.

Yesterday morning I was back in BBC TV Centre in London to film a short sequence for their global travel programme, Fast Track, with the presenter Rajan Datar. This morning I’m off into the hills for a private course.

In Bristol I took the opportunity for a bit of an explore, as you would expect me to. The two pictures above are of the same stone pillar. In the first one, we are looking northeast. In the second one, showing the pollution stains and algae, we are looking southwest. This is a trend that was repeated over a wide area of the city. It was great to find such a vivid example so close to the ground, normally it is worth looking above ground level for the best examples.

In winter full moons rise north of east, in summer they rise south of east. They rise further from east the nearer we get to the solstices. The full moon always behaves in the opposite way to the sun, in time and direction, as it is opposite the sun in its cycle.

At this time of year the sun lights up the countryside in early morning and late evening in a way that is unique. The light pours in from low in the northeastern and northwestern sky. This picture could not be taken at any other time, as the morning light is filtered through gaps in the woods to the northeast of where I live. It lights up strips and leaves the rest of the fields in shade.

A belated thanks to everyone who came to my talks and walks at the North Kent Walking Festival and the Travel Bookshop last week.