I go to Studland fairly irregularly. My parents like the Bankes Arms pub and I like the kayaking school and the walk up to Old Harry Rocks. The Bankes Arms is the sort of pub where the food is simple but really solid. Look at the size of this cheese ploughman’s and especially the size … More Studland’s Secrets: St Nicholas’s Church
I’ve published two posts a week every week since at least the beginning of 2017, maybe earlier. Every week without fail. In the absence of doing any promotion, I’m finding the strategy of very regular posting works wonders for my statistics. But it’s now September 16th and I’ve spent the last three weeks in Russia. … More How I organise my blog
Very occasionally I watch Michael Portillo’s Great Railway Journeys and earlier in the week he was travelling from Norfolk down to Dorset, with a stop on the Isle of Wight on the hovercraft. I immediately wanted to have a go and fortunately, I live within easy driving distance of Southsea so I went. I’ve been … More A summer day out on the Isle of Wight by hovercraft
From the hill above my campsite – well, actually, the campsite continues right up onto said hill – you can see two huge expanses of beach, Woolacombe Sands and Croyde Bay. I’m very impressed with them both and the beaches of North Devon were to continue to impress me. I went to Woolacombe when I … More The vast beaches of North Devon
The first thing I saw in Ilfracombe was Verity, a 66 foot high bronze warrior woman holding an enormous sword above her head and a set of scales behind her back. Truth and justice, you see. But Verity is entirely naked, heavily pregnant and flayed down her whole right half, exposing muscle and flesh and … More Ilfracombe & a large pregnant lady
Following the Notre Dame fire, my trip to Winchester and to the Sistine Chapel, the next stop on my “before it burns down” tour was Salisbury Cathedral. I mean, if it’s worth coming all the way from Moscow to see, it’s worth coming from Wessex to see. Easily done because my car spent eight hours … More Before It Burns Down: Visiting Salisbury Cathedral
If the dream is to travel the world and make a living out of travel blogging and writing, then I guess the medium-term dream is to travel the world working remotely in reasonably reliable employment. Obviously that’s not the dream for everyone. I’m not at all sure that’s even the dream for me but all … More The truth about remote working
Wild garlic bread isn’t a picnic blanket staple, exactly. This is something we did during the foraging and wild-cooking part of my bushcraft training day a couple of weeks ago. Dampers are a classic campfire food, only we jazzed ours up a bit. You’ll need a long stick with a pointy end for cooking – … More The Picnic Blanket Book: wild garlic bread
Last Monday, a lot of big old heavy solid permanent monuments very suddenly became a lot less permanent. My reaction to the Notre Dame fire, once it had been established that most of the building had miraculously survived, was to book flights to Rome next month, primarily to see the Sistine Chapel. I also went … More A day at Winchester Cathedral
I can’t believe it’s already been a month since I started The Picnic Blanket Book and told you all the secrets of my special-recipe rocky road. So here’s the April installment, my other favourite bake, if bake is the word. This is a food that travels well (I took a bag of it on the … More The Picnic Blanket Book: my flapjack recipe
I Am A Polar Bear 