Cat’s Paws on Water
When a gust of wind touches the surface of calm water, it creates a localised patch of bigger ripples. These can be seen as a…
Tag: wind
Navigating by Windswept Grasses
It was great to be out there on Harting Downs again, in the mist, navigating by the feel of the wind and angles of the…
Newsletter Mini Challenges
I just sent out my latest newsletter (you can subscribe at the bottom), which included the four mini challenges below: Answers at the bottom. 1.…
How to Make a Compass Out of Sand, Snow or Dust
Whenever you’re on sand or snow, tune in to the direction the most recent winds have been blowing from and you’ll find yourself surrounded by…
Phototropism and Gravitropism
There is a nice example of gravitropism and phototropism in action in this picture. Gravitropism – The orientation of a plant or other organism in…
Snow and Gorse
It is that time of year when we get to enjoy snow and ice natural navigation clues. In the south of England there hasn’t been…
Horsham Park
My thanks to Leon Winnert for sending in this photo from Horsham Park. The picture was taken in the middle of the day, so no…
Windswept Tree in Dorset
A beautiful example of a windswept tree from the slopes above Chesil Beach, near Abbotsbury, in Dorset. Thanks to Peter Gibbs for image (@PeterG_Weather).
Using Wind Turbines for Natural Navigation, Weather Forecasting and Surf Reports
A guest blog post today from John Hudson of John Hudson Survival. “I live and work in Cornwall. Our granite peninsular juts out into the…
The Winds Around Thurrock Thameside Nature Park
I gave a talk last night at the Thurrock Thameside Nature Park, as a guest of the Essex Book Festival. There was a great audience,…
The Seagull Windvane
Here is a fun way to tell which way the wind is blowing if you can’t feel it: look up and around to find some…
Watches, Time and the Art of Not Getting Lost
On courses and at the end of talks, I regularly get asked about how we can use our watch as a compass. There are two…
Windvane Self-Steering
Although microchips have a childlike tendency to steal our attention away from almost anything else, I am not against technology itself. Once we have steeled…
Classic Cold Front
A cold front is the leading edge of a mass of cold air as it displaces a warmer mass of air at ground level. Cold…
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…
Adventure Logistics
My thanks to Tim and Laura Moss, who braved the elements on Bignor Hill yesterday afternoon. They found themselves wrapping up warm and staring into…
Leaning Telegraph Poles
My thanks to Richard Webber for sending in this photo. The telegraph poles in this picture are leaning from the southwest to the northeast. This…
The Different Life of Paths
Day in, day out, paths experience a different life to that of their verges. Very often there is undergrowth on each side of a path,…
Time and Tide
BBC Devon have a delightful story about the sculptor, Marcus Vergette, on their section of the BBC website. Marcus is sculpting a series of ‘tidal…
Ponds and Serpents
I went for a short circuitous walk in the Lavington Plantation area yesterday morning. Always on the lookout for natural navigational treats, I was also…