As I start to write this post, I finished lesson eleven of my twelve-lesson Russian evening course last night and I have one more lot of homework and one more lesson left and then I’m done. I’m glad for two reasons. One is that this is hard – learning anything with a different alphabet is… More A review of my Russian evening course
I’ve tried to write this before and after the third draft, I realised I was coming at it from the wrong angle. It’s not about me spending the summer paddling, it’s about personal development and learning new skills, and in particular for people in and around travel and adventure! I’ve upped my paddle skills this… More Personal development and learning new skills, for travellers & adventurers
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
I’m a serial language learner. Oh, I don’t reach fluency, nowhere near. I have a degree in French and Spanish, I’ve been learning Norwegian semi-seriously on and off for nearly six years with the intention of becoming… well, not fluent but potentially able to get by if I moved to Norway. I learned enough Russian… More I learned Finnish for a month and here’s what happened!
I’ve been kayaking before. I’ve been kayaking on the sea before – in fact, I’ve only ever been kayaking on the sea. But this post is about learning to kayak on a closed cockpit sea kayak with a spraydeck. The reason is there’s a thing I wanted to do but it’s only available to groups… More Learning to paddle a sea kayak
If you haven’t read Monday’s post on how I fared with my Discover Award, go and read that now. Then come back here and see how the Explore Award went. I said last time that Antz wanted me to do a bow rescue, to hang upside down under a closed cockpit kayak and that I… More … and then I got my Explore Award!
I’ve done a little bit of kayaking before and while I’m not overburdened with talent at it, I’d decided kayaking suits me far better than sailing did. So much so that I decided back in 2017 to get my One Star Award. I got as far as booking it and then the group that actually… More I went kayaking and got my Discover Award!
Last lockdown I got quite into gardening, beginner-style, and as I’ve spent the weekend preparing and planning my updated garden, I thought I’d do a blog about how to grow vegetables for beginners. My baby lettuces and peppers brought me such joy last year and yet even this time last year I wouldn’t have cared.… More How to grow vegetables for beginners
I thought I’d do a post about my Norwegian learning resources. I’ve been doing it on and off since about the end of 2016 but it’s only in Lockdown Three that I’ve really started taking it seriously. It’s been what, a month, and I’ve been introduced to three tenses already that I’d never even seen in… More My Norwegian Learning Resources
Yes, it’s the first post of December and it’s a Christmas-themed one from the bear who hates Christmas! I did a fused glass workshop! I booked it right at the end of October. It was supposed to be on Friday November 6th – yes, the second day of the UK lockdown. On the Saturday night… More My day at a fused glass Christmas workshop