Wild Moments: Off we go again...

We made it out again! We got back out to the woods.

The weather was OK, in the sense that it wasn't raining, but it was dull and grey compared to the gorgeous, blue sky evening we had last week. But the crucial thing was we managed to stick to our goal to get out for a family walk again. 

What we call "The Woods" is about 75 acres of mixed woodland and grassland tucked away behind housing estates and industrial areas in the eastern portion of Stoke-on-Trent city limits. The woodlands are the key feature, and they are beautiful - a mix of older woodland, and younger trees grown up over the site of what I understand was an old brick works. The older areas, full of twisty old oaks and birch, is our favourite. In the spring it is an amazing display of bluebells!

Anyway, this evening the goal was a stream. There are two which flow through 'the woods' and we headed for the furthest with the children running ahead, beckoning us to follow and stopping to check which path we needed to take at each fork. Blossoms were out and added small spots of brightness to the otherwise dull woods on a grey evening. However, when we reached the furthest one the children decided they preferred the other one, you can't win them all.

We learned a lesson the hard way today, when at the furthest point from home one of the children decided they needed the toilet... typical. So we turned for home via the shortest possible route a little sooner than we may have done otherwise, but we still had a decent walk. When I say 'learned a lesson', that isn't the first time that has happened, so we haven't learned yet! 

Our youngest was hilarious with the mud today, despite wearing wellies he was tip-toeing round all the muddy areas - funny boy! He hasn't always been like that, so hopefully it is just a phase and he'll get out of it soon. 

That will do for yesterday's family micro-adventure, this weekend holds a bigger adventure with another part of the family, but that's another story!

Richard

Wild Moments: A family walk at sunset.

I think it is probably on every parents wish list to spend more quality time with their children, time where other distractions can be set aside and just being a parent and a child can be the main focus, even if only for a short time.

We are exactly the same, and so earlier this week we decided one morning (because the weather was beautiful again and it can't last forever in February) that as soon as I was home from work and our oldest daughter was home from her school club, that we would head out for a walk to our local woods. And we did exactly that.

Our woods are a under-appreciated gem, but I'll write more about them another time. The key thing for this short post is that they are easy walking distance from our home and large enough than when in amongst the trees you could pretty easily imagine that you weren't really surrounding by houses and industrial estates.


The sun was already getting low when we left and provided and beautiful, warm back-light to our adventure. Not that warmth was missing, despite being February it was well into double figures Celsius and none of us needed coats or even jumpers.


Wellies were worn of course, mud was jumped in and squelched, the little stream was splashed in, roots were battled with, trees climbed, bird song listened too, tree buds admired, early flowers appreciated, dead leaves crunched, some paths followed and others ignored in favour of the 'adventure route', steps climbed, sticks (swords) were found and battles fought, ecological investigations were initiated ("What dug this hole"? / "What left this footprint"? / "What flower will this be"?) and fresh air and exercise were enjoyed by all. Phew, it was full on small-child adventuring!

Despite the fun the calls for home came and eventually, although by a pretty circuitous route, we pointed our noses for home and left the woods. But there was one more little treat before we concluded our family micro-adventure that day. Between the woods and home there is a point where we can look out to the west across the city. And being a gorgeous day without a cloud in the sky the golden orange orb of the sun was perched teetering on the hazy horizon. We waited and watched as it slipped out of view, eventually leaving just a nail clipping of brightness before vanishing entirely.

Then it was home, dinner, pyjamas, off to a church meeting for me, bed time for the little people - back to normal life. But it was a great escape while it lasted.

We are determined this year to make more of these wild moments for us as a family, particularly in those woods. The signs of spring are already well on the way and what better way for the children to appreciate the seasons specifically and the natural world generally than to witness it change on their doorstep week by week.

More wild moments of this ilk to follow in weeks and months to come.


Richard

The Best Books: John Lister-Kaye - Song of the Rolling Earth

OK, so I will start this review by being honest - I finished this book over 6 months ago and forgot to write about it at the time. Now, I can't remember quite as much about it, which puts a bit of a damper on writing a review about it. But, one thing I remember very clearly is that you should read it. Anyone who has any interest at all in natural history, British wildlife, Scotland - including its cultural history, conservation, success stories, family life, adventure, wilderness or the peace and tranquillity of wild places will enjoy this book. Especially Scotland.

I remember that it doesn't read as if he set out to write a book, rather that he spent a long time living life to the full and in looking back realised that other people may find it interesting. And I for one certainly did. I liked it enough that I immediately bought another of his books and will continue to add his works to my collection as pocket money, shelf space and the seemingly never-dwindling back log of books to read permits.

I had long been aware of the Aigas Field Centre, though pretty sure I've been mispronouncing it the entire time, so thought when I first heard of this book that it would be an interesting read. But it is so much more than simply the story of how the Field Centre came to be - it is the story of someone who had a dream and, having worked their socks off for it, achieved it and a whole lot more besides. And for that I commend Sir John.

One story which I remember more clearly than many of the others which have faded (this is certainly a book I would read again to sharpen those memories) is the account of a boat trip down a river with his young daughter where they came face to face with an otter while resting on the bank - what a experience. I took it as a reminder to me that the ideas and plans I have for my daughter (and son when he is a bit older) to join in my 'adventuring' and ongoing learning about the natural world and its pleasures and intricacies don't have to be pie-in-the-sky. They really can happen and they really can make a difference - I just have to make the effort to get them off the ground.

Reading Song of the Rolling Earth while waiting in
my tent for dinner to cook on Vatersay in the Outer
Hebrides, Scotland.  

While I have taken many things away from this book - an even greater love of Scotland, an admiration of Sir John and the power of working towards your dreams despite opposition and discouragement, an increased sense of humility that I have been born in an age and in a place where I really have had it easy to name just a few examples - perhaps the greatest lesson I will cling to is that dreams come true in Scotland... and perhaps other places too.

I'm glad I got to read at least a portion of this book while in Scotland myself. Walking and wild camping around an Island in the Outer Hebrides which still hosts the crofts and small rural communities which are described to some extent in the book. That trip was in itself a dream come true for me. A dream probably 15 years in the making and it lived up to the expectation and anticipation that had been accumulating over that time.

In conclusion I would propose that the "Song of the Rolling Earth" Sir John describes throughout this book is the soundtrack of dreamers. OK, that was a bit flowery, just read the book already.

Richard

Plans for 2019

Soo... 2019. How did that happen?!

As I've already mentioned (here), 2018 was a good year. About a year ago I wrote about my plans for the year ahead (click here). I didn't really stick too closely to those, but it gave me some targets and set me up at the beginning of the year to try and use the time wisely. So this is take 2 - another years worth of plans to be changed as needed, but to set the tone for the year.

Before I get into the exciting plans, something I would like to plan on is putting more conservation themed content into my pictures and blog posts - it's there in my day to day life, but perhaps because it is such a big part of my routine I often end up writing about other things. To me 'adventure' is really just a way to increase my enthusiasm and experience of the natural world around me, and a desire to conserve it is the natural result. I can't visit a mountain or a river or a wetland and appreciate it's natural beauty, or harshness, or diversity without in turn thinking "other people need to see / learn about / experience this for themselves" and "I need to make sure this is looked after". So I need to reflect that more in what I am sharing. A bit more of that sort of thing later on.

Adventure plans then. Pretty tame compared to many peoples; no international travel, no really high cost, long duration trips, just old school, relatively low cost, low complexity fun.
- March (probably) will contain a 'boys adventure' with my brothers, all 6 of them (including my brother-in-law) to mid Wales. To replace in part our delayed Three Peaks attempt last year. Mid Wales is an area I visited often last year, and an area I will keeping going back to - I love it over there.
- April: Extended family reunion in southern Scotland. We try to hold these every other year, and I've been looking forward to this since the last one finished!
- May: Re-scheduled family trip to the Isle of Skye. When we looked into it for last summer we were put off by all the accounts of how touristy it gets in the peak season. I am very excited about this, it will be my first trip to the Isle of Skye and will tick off a bucket list destination for me.
- June: Hopefully the full Hadrian's Wall path. 85 ish miles across the UK from coast to coast. This is another 'wanted-to-do-it-for-years' item. I haven't really looked into the plans for this yet, so I will need to figure out the specifics but I am looking forward to making it work somehow.
- Maybe another Snowdonia trip at some point later in the year, but that is TBC.

Is that it? I think it is at present. There are gaps through the year which can be filled with other bits and pieces. 'Micro-adventures' will be sprinkled throughout. Beach trips with the children, early morning wanderings round Cannock Chase before work, family walks, cycling to work instead of driving, sledging (if we get any decent snow), maybe even canoeing to work once or twice, plenty of options. In many ways these smaller, day to day 'adventures' will be more important. I fully subscribe to the thinking of Alastair Humphreys (look him up if you've never heard of him) that living adventurously is more about little things on a regular basis, than one off big trips or exotic travel. But also because these will be where my children learn about living adventurously, and appreciating the beautiful world around them. Those trips are where that desire to protect what they have come to appreciate, which stems from a love of what they have seen, will develop.


There is learning to be done too.
- I'm hoping to do some more water based stuff this year, possibly a canoeing / kayaking course of some sort to increase my current (very low) skill level to match my (pretty high) enthusiasm level.
- I have shelves of books to read which I would like to make more time for this year, leaving Youtube and social media behind for a bit and focusing on more tangible 'content' (does anyone else not like that word very much?). I'll try and increase the number of 'The Best Book' reviews I post on here.
- I'd like to do more with my website, share more through it, expand it a bit, make more use of it generally.

There is also the back ground stuff. For example, the home office (not THAT Home Office you understand) and / or Man Cave which I have been talking about since we moved into our current home nearly 7 years ago. This year needs to be the year that I make some progress on that. Rhino, my adventure wagon and workhorse needs a little bit of TLC - on an adventure trip last year I managed to kill the alternator with ( I assume) some water which was a little on the deep side for him. He is fixed, but I need to make sure that doesn't happen again - I will write about the story of that at some point.
In fact, he really needs to feature on this blog more often than he currently does.

Finally, I would really like to be a bit more proactive on getting these messages out to people. I don't really know how that is going to take shape yet, but I need to pull my finger out and figure it out this year. Maybe offering to talk in schools or help out on Duke of Edinburgh Awards or something like that. Who knows.

In any event, I intend it to be a full year, and going by the fact that a whole month of it has already passed me by that side of things is well on track

Richard

Looking back on a good year

2018, you were great, thanks!

I hope that every one of the two or three people reading this had a good year, and that you have another good one in 2019. I've been simultaneously thinking about the high points of the last 12 months, and what the next year is likely to hold for me. Highlights first, goals to be shared another day!

High points of 2018:

Early February - Starting with a literal high, Snowdon (click here to read by post about that). I'd procrastinated this for far too long and it was great to have finally done it. The weather was interesting (snow and ice on the ground) but really great in terms of the sights and experience they offered me. What a way to start the year!

April - Barra, Outer Hebrides. A treat for a significant birthday (but can you guess which one?!) this trip was the fulfilment of a dream I have had since I was a teenager, and it absolutely didn't disappoint. I was only able to scratch the surface of what the Outer Hebrides have to offer, but I will certainly be back to scratch deeper! I haven't even finished writing the blog posts about it yet, but that is not for lack of interest, it is more for concern that I can't do it justice! Parts 1 and 2 are done (click here and here respectively), Part 3 is yet to be completed, but will make an appearance at some point... soon... ish?!)

May - Extended family holiday to Wales. Wife and children, parents, siblings, their families, big cottage, middle of no where in the Brecon Beacons National Park, river in the garden, beautiful weather, whats not to like! Great company, great location, great times. Oh and Wales, which, while I am a proud Englishman, holds a special place in my heart.

June - Another bucket list tick here, a source-to-sea river trip on what has to be one of my favourite rivers (through personal experience) in the UK, the Ystwyth in mid Wales. I've wanted to travel it's whole length for years and this year was THE year. Along with one of my brothers we geared up and set off. We had planned to spend the majority of the journey in the water but between some gear issues and this trip coinciding with one of the driest spells in recent UK meterological history, that didn't quite pan out. But that's fine, because it means we can chalk this one up as a fact finding mission, re-assess equipment requirements and do it all again another time! Yes. Despite the set backs, a good trip! (Read about that trip here) 

Summer - New Job. This changed a lot of things, most exciting of which personally was the extra time each day I was able to spend with my family. I really enjoyed my old job - I mean, seriously, how many jobs pay you to ride in helicopters and hike round a National Park? - but my new job allowed me to spend more than 2 hours a day extra with my family. That is massive. The new job is exciting too, it is a step forward and up in my career path, earns me a bit more, saves me money on commuting costs etc etc, but the key reason this is a highlight, is the extra family time. (I think I'll be doing an update on my job situation for this blog soon)

July - We stole away for a family micro-adventure. We wanted to take the children to a decent beach and couldn't really think of one (we do live in a land locked county after all) that was close and we wanted to go to, so we just bit the bullet and drove all the way to Angelsey - because we knew there was a beautiful beach there. It was a cracking day out and both parents and children had a good time, even after the canoe capsized, whoops.  

August - 2018 was a year of bucket list ticking! Another one to tick off harks back to Wales again! (Were all of my adventures in 2018 in Wales...? Maybe), This had been on my list probably for as long as, or at least very close to my river walk dreams. Anybody who likes to explore off the beaten track on 4 wheels will likely be familiar with the term 'green lane', and anyone familiar with the term green lane may well have heard of Strata Florida Abbey in mid Wales, or more specifically, the 'road' which runs through the mountains behind it. The woods where this green lane starts were a favourite play ground when visiting my Grandparents in Wales most years and we would often see 4x4's heading up and off into what seemed like the back of beyond. Ever since then I've wanted to drive that route. That obviously required a vehicle which was capable of doing it (don't think my fiesta would have managed back when I first started driving). I've not written about that trip yet, but I intend to. We turned it into a family camping adventure and it was a hit, although by the end of the green lane the children were either bored or asleep. Maybe shorter green lanes if the children are coming along. Anyway, another dream fulfilled. Check. 

October - Finally, more than 2 1/2 years after I first started work on it, I took the whole family up too the Peak District to take a walk along the path which I helped build across Brown Knoll in the Peak District. It was pretty chilly and the whole path was a little too long for the littlest legs among us, but we had a great day out together and the weather as kind - no rain! There children enjoyed looking for fossils and patterns in the flag stones which we had laid out and hearing a few stories about how we laid them. I have some good memories from building that path, despite the cold temperatures and frequently atrocious weather!

December - I stole another quick solo visit to the Peak District with a spare day of holiday before Christmas. My wander round Kinder Scout was much needed to clear my head and give me chance to have some quiet time. I only wrote about that a few weeks backs so won't bore you with details, but you can read about it here if you missed it at the time.  

I've not covered everything. There were other family outings, sunrises and sunsets, fun when visiting family over the summer, but this was a highlights reel, not a comprehensive round up of the year. I'll share some plans and hopes for 2019 in the next few weeks. if your intrigued as to whether I can beat 2018 this year then keep tuned!

Richard

Back to the Peaks

At this time of year the alarm which wakes you for sunrise doesn't have to be early. Of course your chances of actually seeing the sunrise are somewhat diminished by the temperamental British weather, but that makes the nice ones all the more special. 

I had taken a day off work and decided that the best way to use my 'adventure day', perhaps ironically, was to go back to my old office; back to the Peak District National Park. I hadn't had a day to myself in the wild for a while and I wanted to make the most of it. To me 'making the most of it' means either out early or out late and with two children waiting for Daddy to come home the preference is always the former. So I set my alarm early enough that I could drive to Edale (which really is where my old office is) and hike up onto Kinder Scout in time to watch the sun rise. 

My plan more or less worked. I was a good way up the southern slopes of Kinder with a few minutes to spare until sunrise when I stopped at a vantage point below Ringing Roger. Overlooking Edale and the Great Ridge it was an ideal spot to watch the sun rise at the mouth of the valley, behind Lose Hill. It was great to be out in the fresh air, watching the world waking up for a short winter day - that never gets old. But my view of the sunrise itself was mediocre, there was just a bit too much cloud. As technically I shouldn't have been able to see it at all I didn't feel to complain too much - the weather forecast had been for thick fog. And anyway, this was just the start of my day.

I often forget how narrow the top of Kinder Scout is at this western point; only a few hundred meters from southern edge to northern lip. Having quickly crossed it, hoping across boggy patches and mini streams, passing the trig point on my way. Reaching the edge I turned west along the northern ridge to reach the head of a stream, Blackden Brook, which would lead my back down again.

A friend had previously remarked about how scenic Blackden Clough was, with its steeply falling stream and many waterfalls and cascades. Ever since that conversation I had been looking for an opportunity to see it for myself. This was my chance and it didn't disappoint, but like many beautiful spots you have to earn the sight. The descent along the stream required hands as well as feet particularly with the rocks slick from over-night rain. 

The tumbling water was clear and strong, the normal peaty darkness of the streams diluted by the freshly fallen. I followed it right down to the valley floor, to the Ashop River. I'd had a relatively crazy plan to make it all the way up to Alport Castles which I quickly realised wasn't going to happen that day - it was an extra 10 km or so, and I while I had been making a reasonable pace, stopping to take photo's and timelapses doesn't cover miles, and I wanted to get back at a reasonable hour to see the family. The long walk would have to wait for another time. 


I turned west and followed the river upstream, until I couldn't without getting wet! The valley slopes transitioned from steep to vertical and I backtracked to get up onto a passable grade. At another time of year, and with some company as a safety back up I'd have happily continued in the river itself, but not in December, flying solo and after a decent rainfall. After a few gentle kilometers, numerous dead sheep and dozens more mini-falls and cascades dropping off the steeply rising land to my left I crossed Fairbrook and started heading back up again. 

The weather up to this point had been changeable, the fog rolling in and out sporadically. As I started up the clough I could see Fairbrook Naze, and then I couldn't - the low cloud obscuring it from view, before breaking and flooding the hillside with sunlight. By the time I reached the top the fog was pretty well set it and remained for the rest of my time up on Kinder that afternoon. 


I crossed the plateau from the top of Fairbrook clough across to Kinder Downfall, a route I had taken before, but I was glad of the reassurance that the Ordnance Survey app on my phone gave me that I heading in the right direction as at times I couldn't see more than about 30 or 40 yards in any direction. I could barely see the downfall when I got there, having followed the Kinder river along its shallow gravelly course for a few hundred yards. The contrast between peat soils and sandy, gravel river bed has always stuck out to me - the Kinder plateau is a funny old place. If you haven't ever visited, I highly recommend it. 


The rest of the trip was really just a return to home. I followed the Pennine way south from the downfall along the edge of the plateau, veering off to pick up the second trig-point of the day and cut off the south-western corner before picking up the path along the southern edge and following past the Woolpacks and Crowden Tower to the head of Grindsbrook Clough. The path down Grindsbrook is a decent and a half, it's one that I have done many times and don't think I'll ever really get tired of it. 

Looking back up at Kinder along the flagstone path which leads you back to Edale and civilization I knew I had used my day off well. 

Richard  

Digital Photography without the computer.

This isn't a photography blog, and I don't think it ever will be. There are lots of people far more experienced and technically minded than me writing about photography and cameras. So many that I'm not sure there is anything I could add that hasn't already been said or written many times before. Having said that, photography does play a pretty big part in it. I hope the images I include help tell the stories as well as illustrating them, and maybe even light a spark inside somebody to travel a bit farther, dream a bit bigger. 

And as a big plus for me, I enjoy taking them; the process adds an additional enjoyment factor to the time I spend outside and makes me look longer and more intently at the world around me. So I thought I would take a few minutes to describe how my images make it from camera to my blog or social media posts - the ones that do make it that is, it is a relatively low proportion which do! 

First off a brief note on my camera equipment. At some point in the future I will write more about the various bits and pieces of my camera gear.

I use an Olympus OM-D EM1, I've had it for 2 1/2 years or so, and I bought it second hand from... Ebay - good old Ebay! By the latest standards its lagging a bit behind in some areas; but it was Olympus' flagship camera in 2013 and considered to be a 'professional' level camera at the time, and I am still pretty happy with the results I get from it. I've always worked on the basis that I'd rather have good quality old gear than cheap, brand new gear. I have a few different lenses for it, a couple of Olympus lenses and a Panasonic telephoto. I also have a GoPro (free gift with a new internet contract) which I am still getting to grips with - early days. Tripods come in useful now and again, and I have a couple for different scenarios. A few other odds and ends like a few cheap, second hand filters and a set of extension tubes make up the sum total of my photography gear.

So far, so normal - pretty standard story, pretty standard photography gear. But unlike many photographers, my pictures never make it onto a computer except to back them up for storage. I suspect I am only one of a growing number who work this way - I do all my image editing on a smartphone.

There are a few primary reasons for this: 

Firstly, the cost of decent editing software and the fast computers required to run it put me off. As I don't make a regular income from my photography I couldn't justify the price of a full suite of editing software. Plus, because I only ever tweak my images I simply do not need the full range of abilities offered by something like Adobe Photoshop.  

Secondly, I found a touch interface a far more intuitive and faster way to input edits than mouses and keyboards. I've never gone particularly heavy on editing, I never add things and only very rarely remove things from images. When I do it is small distractions not large components of the composition so inventive use of the 'heal' function for removing dust spots and similar is normally good enough. As such the free, or substantially cheaper editing apps available on the Android operating system suited my purposes (and I'm sure you could say the same about iOS as well).

After a fair bit of trial and error I've found a system that works well for me, as follows:

- I have an SD card reader which plugs in to a micro USB port, this allows me to off load images, including the RAW files, direct from my cameras SD card to my phone.

- I have a model with expandable memory so I can use a large Micro SD card as an image store and back up a decent number of images.

- I then add raw images for editing to Adobe Lightroom Mobile. This is a paid for app and costs a few pounds a month. It is more limited than the full desktop version but is also significantly cheaper and gives me most of the functionality I want at the minute.

- Having made initial adjustments on Lightroom I export the image and perform final adjustments in an app called Snapseed, a free app developed by Google, and then save a final version of the image. Snapseed has a few functions which Lightroom does not, otherwise I would stick to just the single application. 

- The final step in the process is to backup both original and processed images to an external hard drive. This is one element of my 'workflow' which still requires a bit of work. At present I have to back up via a computer, because I am using a standard hard drive as back up. With an SSD I could work directly from the phone. At the minute the cost of high capacity SSD drives are a bit on the high side for me. But they are coming down in the price all the time and I am sure that before too long they will be within reasonable financial reach.

The main players in this process are the two editing apps. There are pro's and con's to both. On balance I prefer Snapseed I think. It has an almost bewildering array of options of which I use perhaps 10%, but it is layed out very well and is very simple to use I find. Of course the perfect app would be a combination of the features and functionality of both, preferably with the price tag of Snapseed, i.e. none. 

So that's it. Start to finish; camera to Instagram and beyond without a computer. Of course these days smart phones are computers. I recently bought a 'new' phone - a Samsung Galaxy S7 Active (from Ebay again, but it is new to me) - the model is several years old and already superseded several times over but the processor in it has as much RAM as the laptop which got me through two University degrees! And it's screen has a higher resolution than any other device I've owned. 

The final advantage that I will mention of this work flow is that I can do it anywhere and have done it in many different places. Waiting in an airport, sitting on a bus, in bed, on top of a mountain. And so far as any watching is concerned, you are just like everyone else in the world, looking at a phone. Quick, fuss free and easy. 

Of course this method won't work for everyone. People doing extensive and complex editing on massively high resolution images for sale to high paying clients for example. But the last magazine article I had published used images I had edited in this way and the art editor didn't say anything about the quality of the imagery. I have yet to try printing large images edited in this way on anything other than canvas, but I will one day. In the mean time I will focus on the fact that I can afford to because I havent had to buy a new and expensive computer which I would only need to use for one thing. 

Hopefully this may give one or two people some food for thought. 

Richard

  

End result ready for sharing on social media or as part of a blog post.