Prickly Lettuce, A Compass Plant
Prickly lettuce is known to some of its navigating friends as the ‘compass plant’ and to its Roman friends as ‘lactuca serriola’. In truth it…
Tag: south
Analemmas and the Equation of Time
If you stood on the same spot and took a photo of the sun every day during a year’s worth of good weather, at exactly…
Back from the Arctic
Yesterday I arrived back home after sailing north from Scotland via the Faroe Islands into the Arctic, finishing at Reykjavik. I used the trip to…
Tree Lichens and Royalty
————————- In these four pictures we are looking at the same beech tree. See if you can work out which way you are looking in…
Which Way Are We Looking?
The last astro quiz proved so popular that I thought we’d do another. This fantastic photo was taken by the expedition photographer, James Walker. Thanks,…
Snow and Ice Patterns
I’m just back from some micronavigation in the Black Mountains in Wales. I should get a chance to blog in more detail in time, but…
Greek Island Embarrassment
OK, it’s confession time. Again. I’m just back from a week’s holiday with my wife on the Greek island of Kefalonia. It was our first…
Monkey Puzzles
Natural navigation is at its most fun when it is a puzzle and a test of our senses. Have a look at this photo and…
Finding South Using the Stars
Finding South Using the Stars In the northern hemisphere Polaris, the North Star, tends to get all the attention when it comes to finding direction…
Moon Shadows
Last night I divided my time between two very different arenas of the modern human experience. I watched dross on TV, including some Jonathan Dross…
Southern Ripening
There is no better way to get a feel for botany than to grow something from seed. By the time a plant is even a…
Great Nebulae and Emerging Expeditions
We are bearing down on stargazing-season. It is getting dark early enough in the evenings, staying dark long enough in the mornings and doesn’t yet…
Finding South with Orion’s Sword
On my night walk earlier, the stars were on great form. I like to use lots of different techniques for fun and practice, but Orion…
Grass and Grass
The heat seems to have abated a little, but the sun has left its great big footprints all over the countryside. The baked earth is…
Great Lettuce!
There is a good photo of the Great Lettuce, Lactuca Virosa, with its leaves aligned north-south on the Adur Wild Flower website. If you do…
Happy Summer Solstice
Happy Summer Solstice everyone. Sunrise and sunset will be closer to north than east or west at this time of year for most of Scotland.…
Navigating with Nature
One of the keys to navigating with nature is appreciating scale. It is vital that we do not spend too much time focusing too narrowly…
Colours and Contours
The rape flowers are coming into bloom over the South Downs, but they don’t all bloom at the same time. The crop tends to be…
Find Your Way with Sheep
It’s 8.15am this morning out on the Downs and this sheep’s shadow tells us that we are looking south. Her wool, or ‘sheep fur’ as…
