Giant Viper’s-Bugloss and Natural Navigation
Giant Viper’s-Bugloss, Echium pininana, is a tall flowering plant in the borage family, native to La Palma in the Canary Islands. It shows a strong…
Giant Viper’s-Bugloss, Echium pininana, is a tall flowering plant in the borage family, native to La Palma in the Canary Islands. It shows a strong…
Humans are so accustomed to using landmarks that we usually don’t even realise when we are doing it. “Turn left at the post office.” “Meet…
I recently took this photo in Lyme Regis, Dorset, on the south coast of England. But what time of day was the picture taken, morning…
Really enjoyed this chat about navigating with nature with Frank Val of Quite Frankly podcast. It was a wide-ranging chat and we covered a lot…
I recently returned from a natural navigation exercise in the New Forest, Hampshire. On leaving a patch of woodland I was reminded of a common…
Happy Solstice! Time to celebrate with a micro puzzle… If you walked towards sunrise for ten minutes this morning, then waited and walked towards sunset…
Yesterday I visited the National Gallery with my sister to view the paintings in their latest exhibition, After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art. I can recommend…
Which is the older of these two large trees? Clue: there are a few ways we can age trees, including one related to natural navigation.…
It was an honour and a great pleasure to get the chance to talk about reading tree signs with Justin Webb on BBC Radio 4’s…
Happy March Equinox! The sun will rise and set north of east and west from tomorrow. In the northern hemisphere this means its arc in…
The North side of the logs… The South side of the logs. You might also enjoy: Natural Navigation Using Snow on Trees What is a…
Here is a bumper photo puzzle that went out in my newsletter email earlier this month (you can sign up for that at the bottom…
A guest blog by John Hudson FRGS, the UK military’s Chief Survival Instructor. Direction finding in the military these days uses lots of technology, but…
Sometimes natural navigation is more challenging than others. I’m often asked, “What is the most difficult place to navigate using nature?” I think people expect…
I’m not a professional photographer, which makes it all the more helpful to know a few tricks that help create great landscape photographs. If you…
The colour of grass can indicate the depth of the soil. Towards the end of summer, especially hot dry ones, the colour of the grass…
It is much easier to predict animal behaviour when we learn certain simple patterns. Most animals see the world in terms of basic things like:…
I’ve just received another fascinating email from ‘Chris in Finland’: I took this photo a few days ago on Lake Näsijärvi, Tampere, Pirkanmaa, Finland. This…
There was a 22 Degree halo around the moon a couple of nights ago. This is a sign of cirrostratus, a high veil of icy…
I’ve been faced with an interesting weather challenge recently. I needed to take a sail off my boat for maintenance. This is something I can…
I went for a very enjoyable night walk in the South Downs last night. What direction are we looking in the photo above? Answer… We…