Last year I went to Wareham and hired a canoe. I knew from experience the year before that although rowing boats are so much more romantic, they’re a lot heavier and a lot more difficult to manoeuvre. So having discovered that canoes are easier, I went off to Wareham on the first niceish day of … More How to do an (accidental) handbrake turn in a canoe
Since I’ve gone back to swimming recently, and since I made some comments about Iceland the Obligatory Naked Shower (although it’s possible they were in the first version that I deleted and rewrote), I thought I’d write a whole post about Iceland and swimming. Most western countries are pretty big drinkers and Iceland is no … More Iceland and swimming
When I blithely added the title “what’s going on in the garden this spring?” to my content calendar back along, I was envisioning a nice sunny spring where I spent entire weekends outside, lying on a blanket, with a book next to me and a notebook I hadn’t actually touched. I envisioned coaxing vegetables into … More What’s going on in the garden this spring?
I was excited about this. I checked my emails multiple times a day in the hopes of hearing something about this and here it is! Anna McNuff‘s new book, Bedtime Adventure Stories For Grown Ups is out mid May and I’ve already read it! Full disclosure, I signed up to Anna’s Trail Team mailing list … More Bedtime Adventure Stories For Grown Ups by Anna McNuff
I love swimming. I love swimming for fun and I love swimming for exercise because the boundary between “it’s good for you!” and “it’s fun!” is so fine. At the moment, I’m not willing to go to one of my local indoor pools because plague but my favourite outdoor pool has just opened and I’ve … More Swimming for exercise and my 2021 swimming goals
I’ve covered everything I know about tents and now it’s time to think about what you’re going to eat. Welcome to Camp Cooking for Beginners! What should I cook on? You’re spoiled for choice on that these days. Let me give you a rundown of your main options. Others exist but these four are the … More Camping for Beginners: Camp cooking
I haven’t done A Single Map in a while – well, not on the blog. I’ve done walks on my map most weeks in real life. We met a lot of cows on this most recent walk! We were using the Sturminster Newton walks again – the last of the five long ones – but … More A Single Map: walking with cows
As I write this, I’m lying in the porch of my tent in the garden, having spent the morning making repairs and while I’m doing the Outdoors 101 and Camping for Beginners series, it seemed it would be a good idea to do a post on how to repair a tent. You’ve bought it, you’ve … More Camping for Beginners: How to repair a tent
I meant to do this last year but apparently I never did: a beginner’s guide to how to pitch a tent. It’s all very well to decide you’re going to try out this camping thing, to go to a shop and buy a tent, but how do you put the thing up? Tents come in … More Camping for Beginners: How to pitch a tent
Perhaps you’re here because you can’t fly off to your sunny summer holiday and you’re beginning to think people might be right about this camping thing, at least until the plague is well and truly gone. But you’ve never camped before; you don’t even know where to begin. Never fear, I’m here to help! Camping … More Camping for Beginners: how to buy a tent
I Am A Polar Bear 