Hello everyone,
It's been a while since I posted on here, but if anyone cares, I'm still not dead! I've been taking alot of time on honing my skills recently, and gaining some new ones at the same time.
I've started getting quite heavily into wild food and fungi recently, and I'm really pleased at the sense of comfort it's giving me outdoors. I find myself really looking out into the woods and fields I'm travelling in and actively using my eyes, rather than day dreaming on the trail. It is difficult, and with fungi in particular I haven't yet eaten any I have identified, for the sake of safety regarding my amateur experience. That hasn't stopped me learning to pick out the coloured nubs of caps between the humus and detritus of the forest floor. A really enlightening hobby for anyone, even if just to realise how deep the natural world's dependence on fungi goes.
My reading has expanded very largely, especially in relation to literature relating to colder climes. I find it to be rather comforting to know that everyone started off in a position of student, and I find it humbling to read that most of those people writing consider themselves to still be so.
My kit has finally begun to descend in the numbers on the scales, with me working out more and more what can be left behind in favour of something easily fashioned outdoors. To anyone starting, I would say that you would be better filling your mind earlier on rather than filling your bag. It'll save your back in the long run. I can still remember being proud I'd gotten my kit down to 23kg!
Most importantly, I've made many fires. I've sat in front of them and tended to tiny blazes that eek out an existence against my inability to give them a hot, airy, fueled home to live and thrive in. I've really come to nurture each fire I make, and make sure both them and I leave an area without a trace, something I feel I owe nature for not having murdered me on this particular trip
Since that struggling fire Wayland helped me light that day with scraped birch bark, I've started watching people more, observing their own personal relationships with the fire. I've been in more than a few dark, dank, creepy forests now to appreciate the almost palpable difference a warm glow makes.
A bit rambley, but I was feeling like waxing lyrical, and have had a good weekend. I see no harm in describing how happy this type of learning makes me
Cheers guys
It's been a while since I posted on here, but if anyone cares, I'm still not dead! I've been taking alot of time on honing my skills recently, and gaining some new ones at the same time.
I've started getting quite heavily into wild food and fungi recently, and I'm really pleased at the sense of comfort it's giving me outdoors. I find myself really looking out into the woods and fields I'm travelling in and actively using my eyes, rather than day dreaming on the trail. It is difficult, and with fungi in particular I haven't yet eaten any I have identified, for the sake of safety regarding my amateur experience. That hasn't stopped me learning to pick out the coloured nubs of caps between the humus and detritus of the forest floor. A really enlightening hobby for anyone, even if just to realise how deep the natural world's dependence on fungi goes.
My reading has expanded very largely, especially in relation to literature relating to colder climes. I find it to be rather comforting to know that everyone started off in a position of student, and I find it humbling to read that most of those people writing consider themselves to still be so.
My kit has finally begun to descend in the numbers on the scales, with me working out more and more what can be left behind in favour of something easily fashioned outdoors. To anyone starting, I would say that you would be better filling your mind earlier on rather than filling your bag. It'll save your back in the long run. I can still remember being proud I'd gotten my kit down to 23kg!
Most importantly, I've made many fires. I've sat in front of them and tended to tiny blazes that eek out an existence against my inability to give them a hot, airy, fueled home to live and thrive in. I've really come to nurture each fire I make, and make sure both them and I leave an area without a trace, something I feel I owe nature for not having murdered me on this particular trip
Since that struggling fire Wayland helped me light that day with scraped birch bark, I've started watching people more, observing their own personal relationships with the fire. I've been in more than a few dark, dank, creepy forests now to appreciate the almost palpable difference a warm glow makes. A bit rambley, but I was feeling like waxing lyrical, and have had a good weekend. I see no harm in describing how happy this type of learning makes me
Cheers guys
