New Forest Spiders
I spent all day Saturday on a natural navigation exercise in the New Forest. For almost all of the day there was total cloud cover…
Tag: trees
Ramblings with Clare Balding
In 2010 I was honoured to lead Clare Balding on the first ever night walk for her wonderful Radio 4 series, Ramblings. Yesterday we were…
Sharpening Skills at the Start and End of the Day
Just before you see the sun rise in the morning or just after it has set for you in the evening, try to work out…
Tree Tricks
Have a look at the trees in this picture I took yesterday. It is quite hard to make out the shape of many individual branches,…
Branches on the North Side of the Tree
The effect of the sun’s light on the way plants grow (phototropism) is often subtle and sometimes takes experience to read and decipher. However, occasionally…
Snow Clues
I took these two photographs during a walk in the woods on Friday morning. The second picture was taken facing the opposite direction to the…
The Vale of Ewyas
Happy New Year! I do not share everything in this blog, you will be pleased to know. Most matters familial and ablutionary are kept from…
Natural Navigation and Sunscreen in One Tree
I recently came across this short video by Michael Barton. It contains a neat natural navigation tip and bushcraft at its most fun. Click on…
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…
Lightness and Darkness
I went for a walk in the South Downs yesterday afternoon. The air was cold, there were still chunks of ice lining the north-facing side…
The Art of Not-Blogging
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…
Jurassic Coast
My thanks to Richard, who sent in this picture from a lad’s walking weekend along the Jurassic Coast. He was given a private course as…
Political Animal Tracks
I try not to let politics enter my mind too much when out walking, but sometimes it helps to be aware of some of the…
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…
Flowers and Blazes
A walk in the woods yesterday revealed some natural and unnatural clues. This primrose, the only one in the area, was unsurprisingly in a south-facing…
Animal Navigation Fascination
I came across this story this morning about a pet dog, Sophie Tucker, that was washed overboard in rough conditions during a sailing holiday off…
Fog Navigation
This morning brought with it a nice thick radiation fog, which the sun will probably burn off soon. There is not forecast to be much…
Churches and Runways
I have found myself at airports a lot recently and it occurred to me that there is not very much to inspire those interested in…
Slightly Fickle Moss
Having spent the morning organising images for upcoming courses, I was reminded of a regular problem with learning anything practical from nature. There is a…