My ordinary church hall Brownies seem to have become Forest Brownies. I’m in an outdoorsy bushcraft wild state of mind and the plague is still ravaging, so Monday Evenings Indoors Brownies are (maybe temporarily) Forest Brownies now. Being a Brownie leader is stressful sometimes, especially when you only took on the Brown Owl job right … More Forest Brownies: campcraft & firelighting in the woods
I’ve just watched someone in all seriousness tell a fairly large following that you can use Google Earth to plan a hike and therefore I need to announce categorically that no, you cannot! And thus here is how to plan a hike.. This is about the route, by the way. It’s not about equipment, experience, … More How to plan a hike
I’ve done some whittling before – I own my own bushcraft knife and, for safety, a pair of kevlar gloves – but the other day I went out in the woods to learn how to carve a spoon. I was looking into bushcraft but ultimately, it’s all stuff I’ve done before (firelighting, shelter-building etc) or … More How to carve a spoon
Another year, another large-scale event missed. This time it’s Wellies & Wristbands 2021. I’ll let you in on a secret: it’s not my favourite of Girlguiding’s flagship events because I find it’s just too much and it’s too busy and too noisy and mostly too expensive but I could fix all of that and make this … More Wellies & Wristbands 2021 (at home)
In mid-June and late July, I went camping just off the edge of Dartmoor. It was supposed to be two weekends in June but the campsite was booked out and so I had to change my dates (and got a free night thrown in). I’d like to talk about the campsite but I have such … More Oaktree Lane Dartmoor campsite review | Camping on Dartmoor July 2021
I was camping the other day and realised that someone needs to speak up about fire safety while camping. Guess it’d better be me. My qualifications for this subject are that I’m a Guide leader of fourteen years’ standing, I was the fire marshall at my last job (and I wrote our fire procedures manual … More Fire safety while camping
In this series, I’ve covered how to choose and buy a tent, how to look after it, what kit to take, how and what to cook and quite a few of the basics of camping. It took until a Twitter exchange this morning (by which I mean last Monday because pre-written and scheduled post!) for … More Why go camping?
As I may have mentioned in my last post, I went camping in the heatwave and made some errors in judgement. But those errors were caused, in part, by the lack of any information whatsoever about how to camp in hot weather. People talk a lot about how to camp in the cold – I’ve … More How to camp in hot weather
New kit haul, she says. Haul. I bought a couple of new bits of camp kit in June and then I bought a couple more new bits in July. You might say some of this is basic stuff that I should have already had years ago but until the last two years or so, my camping … More Camp kit haul
Last week I went back to Brownsea Island for another two nights camping in a tree tent. I learned some lessons from the first time round and I want to tell you about five things I did differently the second time. 1) I didn’t take a sleeping bag You have to carry everything a mile … More Tree camping: 5 things I did differently | Tree Camping July 2021
I Am A Polar Bear 