I was delighted to find this excellent community and I've spent the last couple of days reading back through old posts.
I grew up trampling over Dartmoor with my Dad and then spent several years in New Zealand where we kids ran wild in the local bush, building shelters, cooking over fires, catching and eating eels, swimming down the river and generally having a good time. My Dad gave me my first knife when I was 10 along with a sharpening stone, a lesson on how to use both, and an admonition that he would have little sympathy if I cut myself by being an idiot. In return I showed him how to skin eels.
My field of study was botany and did my dissertation on upland peat bogs which gave me the excuse to go live out on Dartmoor for several weeks. Sadly there are few jobs in botany so I ended up working in engineering but I continued learning about wild food and other uses for plants so I'm also a spinner, dyer, weaver and knitter, and sailing led me to decorative ropework.
Sadly age and arthritis is starting to limit my activities, I can no longer carry much weight nor walk more than a mile or two, but I still love beng outside.
I grew up trampling over Dartmoor with my Dad and then spent several years in New Zealand where we kids ran wild in the local bush, building shelters, cooking over fires, catching and eating eels, swimming down the river and generally having a good time. My Dad gave me my first knife when I was 10 along with a sharpening stone, a lesson on how to use both, and an admonition that he would have little sympathy if I cut myself by being an idiot. In return I showed him how to skin eels.
My field of study was botany and did my dissertation on upland peat bogs which gave me the excuse to go live out on Dartmoor for several weeks. Sadly there are few jobs in botany so I ended up working in engineering but I continued learning about wild food and other uses for plants so I'm also a spinner, dyer, weaver and knitter, and sailing led me to decorative ropework.
Sadly age and arthritis is starting to limit my activities, I can no longer carry much weight nor walk more than a mile or two, but I still love beng outside.
