a-country-diary

Its a bit difficult to muster oneself and embark on a journey of any type in the rain. I got up this morning at 06:00 it was very dark and very wet, I stared out of the window watching the wind thrashing the trees and rain washing the car and decided that I would give it a miss for this weekend.....My friends farm is very open and affords little in the way of protection from the wind and rain and I just know that going out in this weather would result in a very wet me and nothing in the bag, plus it would be a waste of diesel as the journey is a 140 mile round trip.

Instead I will outline a little of what I want to achieve in my blog...I want to pass on some tips  and knowledge about what the countryside has to offer in the way of food, shelter and medicines and point out just how much fun you can have with your bush-crafting skills...you don't need to have a vast knowledge, just the basics will get you started, you don't need masses of equipment either...my starter kit was a penknife and a striker flint.

My kit consists of a Jack Pike hunting bag (others are available )...in it are a fresh dry t'shirt, my hat, bush knife, fire kit, string, rope and survival tin, I also have a small selection of plastic and paper bags for storage...they can also be used as tinder for getting a good fire started...I carry a small round pebble picked up on the beech, this is the size of a small orange and is invaluable as a multi purpose tool. My cook kit is a self contained Swedish Army Trangia Cooker bought online new for £16.00 and is a fantastic piece of kit...the main housing contains the burner, meths bottle and two solid cook pans all in aluminium for lightness...I have two small bottles with a salt and pepper mix and the other with olive oil...I carry the usual sachets of Coffee and Sugar...less bulk and the packaging can be used for tinder. I recently used the cooker to make hot coffee for four of us whilst walking on the Great Orme, much to the suprise of my wife and parents in-law who were dubious about its ability...five Min's later hot sweet coffee and a row of smiley faces, only thing missing was a nice thick sandwich of ham and cheese.

I am a 50 year old man with a decision to make about what I want out of the next 50 years of my life...I have a passion for the countryside, having spent 40 of my years walking, smelling and tasting it...I just love the outdoors and worry about what we are all doing to it...I am an avid photographer and have recently started making my own movies...I know I could live off it If needed and would like to do something about my passions...so I will write a blog, a week to week diary of what I have seen, done and where I have been...please feel free to add to it....I will post some pictures, tips on using the countryside to feed and heal me and when I figure it out how to post some I will add some of my short movie clips...so for now thats it.