What will 2012 bring?

Last year (well, December 2010) I wrote a little review of the year and my aspirations for 2011. They were in no way New Year Resolutions – why set yourself up to fail? – but I thought I’d give it a go this year as well. Here goes…

2011 was not an easy year for anyone. We are still in recession. Maybe not in official terms, but things have been crap since Northern Rock committed suicide in 2007, which coincidentally was the year we decided to move to the North East. I can’t help feeling 2012 is not going to be the year that things get better. But enough about the gloom. Did I do what I said I would?

Let’s start with the successes. I passed my driving test (only six months after I thought I would) and so did my Taller Half. We bought a car. My photography has gotten better. We haven’t got any chickens yet, but we have at last decided where in County Durham we want to live.

I have a head full of excuses, but I didn’t write as much as I wanted to, and I didn’t do as much foraging as I had planned. On the plus side, I have learned how to make rowan jelly, refined my sloe gin and sloe gin truffle-making, and I can now make cheesecake.

I am now house hunting again, and I very much hope that we will be able to buy our own house before the summer kicks in. Mainly because our house at the moment has a rubbish garden and just one lonely blackbird. I will start pining soon if I don’t get a garden I can do things in.

What else have I got planned for this year? Firstly: to not be scared of my car. I mean, to be a confident and safe driver. If we get our house, I plan to spend the summer gardening. I also need to learn a new foraging patch. I need to find new photo spots too – I’ve already found lots of horses to photograph so I think I’ll get some good shots. I will try and write more: I like writing, but I need to be in the mood or it isn’t fun. I’d also like to start horse riding again. This comes with a caveat: I’m not sure we’re going to have any money for luxuries this year.

That’s it I think. I hope 2012 will be a good year for me. I hope it will be for you too!

Looking east from Crook, County Durham

My arms length obsession with horses

I’ve had a long and frustrated love affair with horses for probably my whole life. One of my earliest memories is of an art session at playschool. The boy sitting next to me painted a beautiful black horse. I envied him so much that I vowed to be as good at painting horses as he was.

There was no one else horsey in my family, and no money for me and my siblings to indulge in such a costly pastime, but I treasured the few horse books I was given at birthdays. If I wasn’t reading about horses I was drawing or thinking about them.

Something amazing happened at secondary school. Our PE teacher arranged a pony trekking holiday in Wales and my parents agreed to let me go. I got to learn to ride in the Black Mountains on a chestnut Welsh mountain pony called Guy. I say learn to ride. I learned to stay on Guy’s back while he dragged me under blackthorn trees and cut the corners off incredibly steep downhill tracks. Bliss!

My pocket money was enough to buy sweets but not riding lessons, so my equine obsession remained arms length through most of secondary school. Then something wonderful happened. There was no GCSE for PE, so we were allowed to pursue optional sports instead. I got to go horse riding in school time for two years. Thank heavens for our horsey PE teacher.

I was the smallest person in secondary school for four years – only in my fifth year did a first year arrive who was shorter than me. I was not athletic in any way. But I was incredibly stubborn. I figured if I could not afford horses, I would work with them. Immediately after my last GCSE exam – and still only fifteen – I started my new life as a trainee stud groom on a miniature horse stud farm in deepest West Sussex. I got to live in a filthy caravan and was paid £29.50 a week, but I loved it.

My other interest has always been in understanding the behaviour of others – people and animals. Living on a stud farm I was in my element, observing and learning the behaviour and interactions of the ponies, who lived, mated and foaled au naturale. I decided I wanted to be a horse psychologist and left the stud to continue my education.

I never did become a horse psychologist, but after a three year spell as a riding instructor after college I did go to uni to study human psychology (and no, I’m not analysing you before you ask). I didn’t forget about horses though.

I can barely remember the last time I rode a horse, and I rarely get my art stuff out these days, but if you’ve read any of my other posts you’ll know I’ve been playing photographer for a while. Since moving to Durham over three years ago I’ve been living in a mainly horse-free area. I may have been rural, but most of the fields were arable. Now I’ve moved and there are horses galore. I can walk for half an hour and go past or through seven fields with horses in. There are even two riding schools near me.

Some of my recent photos are here, and there are more on Flickr. I don’t know what else this year will hold, but I do know I’m going to be taking lots of photos of horses.

Stepping back in time

We’ve been proud Crook residents for nearly a month now. I’ve lived in County Durham for over three years, and thought I had a good feel for the place, but West Durham is full of surprises.

Crook is a market town. The market is every Tuesday. Get there quick – by early afternoon most of the stallholders have packed up and gone home. If you ignore the modern traffic and the ubiquitous betting shops (we have two) there is a real feeling that the modern age has not reached Crook yet. For chain shops we have two banks, two Coops, a Boots and a Greggs. Almost all the other shops are utilitarian independents. We have two grocers, two hardware shops, two butchers, a saddlers… all shops that are hard to find on most high streets these days.

Crook isn’t a place to do your Xmas shopping, so I thought I’d check out Bishop Auckland. Bishop is full of history, but I’d always felt it was a bit run down. In the past, the only reason I had to go to Bishop was to get a connecting bus to or from Weardale or Teesdale. Today I had my ‘local’ eyes on, and was expecting to find at least some Xmas-shoppable shops.

Wrong. Bishop Auckland is bigger than Durham city, but like Crook, utilitarian is the theme. There are more of your typical high street shops here – there’s an M&S and a Dorothy Perkins, and a big Asda and Morrisons – but otherwise the shops are either independent utilitarian outfits or pound shops. Great if you need to buy wool or get your TV repaired, not so good for Xmas presents.

Don’t get me wrong – there’s a real charm about these traditional shops that is completely lacking in the modern high street. I popped into Bondgate Books, an independent bookshop, and it was like walking into a scene from Black Books. The books were piled everywhere, mostly on the floor. Unlike Black Books, the proprietor couldn’t be more friendly. He was especially keen to show all his customers the front page of the Sun – his daughter is a member of the Military Wives Choir, and there she was on yesterday’s front page getting a kiss from a celebrity.

Tomorrow I’m going to make a final attempt at Xmas shopping in Durham city. There are plenty of dependable chain shops in Durham, but I’ll be looking with fresh eyes and wondering where all those traditional independents have gone.

Goodbye and hello

Tomorrow I move house. I’ve lived here for two and a half years, and many of my posts are set from my office window, garden or local area.

I’ve really enjoyed living here. There’s lots I will miss: the view, the quiet, and the birds. I’ve been privileged to share my garden with a large colony of tree sparrows. These rare little birds are only found in about three percent of British gardens, so the chances are that I will not have that privilege again. But who knows what the future will bring? Our next house will be a short term rent, but the house after that… well, we’ll see.

So where am I moving to? The plan is to move to the Durham Dales, just as soon as the right house turns up. For the next six months I’ll be living in the market town of Crook. It’s about twelve kilometres from Durham, but only eight kilometres from Wolsingham, the closest Weardale village. I’ll be a townie, but I’ll be closer to the more interesting County Durham countryside.

I’ve also bitten the bullet, passed my driving test and bought a car. Driving is something I’ve never wanted to do, but it’s hard to live out in the middle of nowhere without a vehicle.

All this change feels a bit scary, but hopefully it will be fun too. Next time I’ll tell you all about my new local patch.

Until then, here’s the view I’ve had for the last couple of years:

Playing with fire

Earlier this month the unseasonably warm weather tempted me and My Taller Half to take a trip out to Teesdale with the tent. We haven’t been out and about much this year, so this was the first opportunity to try out my new toy in the field.

A bit of an impulse buy, my Caldera Ti Tri Sidewinder camping stove is a three-in-one ultra lightweight stove, allowing you to cook using meths, solid fuel or wood. As I’ve previously blogged, it got very good reviews from the walking magazine TGO. Here’s my review so far…

Customer service

The first thing to say is that, although you can only buy this stove direct from the US manufacturer Trail Designs in dollars, I had a very pleasant buying experience. The website is a bit daunting, as there are so many bits and bobs on it – if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for you can feel a bit lost. However, they are a very approachable bunch and I’ve had some friendly email exchanges with co-founder Rand Lindsly (pre- and post-sale). If you don’t know what you want, just ask.

Trail Designs’ speciality is titanium. This is not cheap. Then you have to add US postage. On the plus side, buying in dollars turned out to be very easy – I just used my credit card in the usual way – and there’s the added advantage of a favourable exchange rate. A $186 dollar purchase cost me £118. That’s still a lot of money for a stove.

Making fire

What’s so good about this stove to make me order it from the US and spend ££££s? I’ve always used a Trangia. Bullet proof, versatile, reliable: Trangias are brilliant pieces of kit. But when I go solo camping I find it a little bit on the weighty side. I’m unconvinced by gas stoves. No reason (I’ve never tried one) I just have a prejudice about them. My Caldera stove weighs almost nothing. But the main reason I bought it is that I can light real (but tiny) fires on it. Do I need any other reason?

Practising in the garden. It reminds me of a dalek...

Practising

It might be a cool piece of kit, but it is not an easy beast to master. The meths burner is quite easy, but I’m used to the Trangia where I can stub out the flame or make it simmer. With enough fuel I can cook quite complicated meals on the Trangia. The Caldera burner (like most meths burners actually) cannot be put out. This means you have to plan ahead how long you want it to burn for – otherwise you waste fuel. I also have only one pot with the Caldera, whereas with the Trangia I had two pots, a frying pan and a kettle.

On the plus side, the Caldera + meths burner is very snug, and it’s very safe once set up. And it’s made from a recycled coke can – how cool is that?

The real challenge was learning how to use the wood burner. I’ve had long, hard and smoky lessons about just how dry those twigs really are, and I’ve learnt that tiny fires need constant nurturing – turn your back for five minutes and your fire will definitely have gone out.

After many attempts, I finally mastered the art of a one-match fire. We decided we were ready to take it camping with us. The Trangia, for the first time ever, stayed at home.

In the field

Off to Teesdale we went for the weekend (you can read about the trip here).

There are two problems with using the wood burner in a campsite: the fire can be very smoky, and it scorches the grass. We decided to stick to the meths burner on site and play with the wood burner out ‘in the bush’.

The meths burner was a joy to use. The only hiccup was that the floor plate had a tendency to curl up – it takes more effort than we realised to get it flat after being rolled up with the stove. (Did I tell you? The whole stove rolls up in a little cone and sits inside the pan). Oh, and without the weight of the pan the stove can blow away in strong wind. But once everything is in position you can just leave it until the meths burns out. It’s incredibly sturdy, and there are no escaping flames to worry about. Simples.

Now for the real test: using the wood burner. We ambled off to the river bank and eventually found a quiet spot. I’ve never made a ‘wild fire’ before, and although I knew it would not make a mess, I was very aware that the landowner might take a different view. It was so hot and dry, lighting the fire was easy and it made barely any smoke. The only thing to scupper our plans was the heat – it was just too hot to cook up a proper meal. We settled for cup-a-soup and fire-toasted bread. Very nice it was too.

Once you stop feeding the fire it goes out very quickly, and we were soon ready to pack up. The fire had burned the moss off the stone we were cooking on, so if anything we left things cleaner than when we’d arrived, but otherwise there was virtually no sign that we’d lit a fire.

My first 'wild fire' somewhere on the river Tees

The verdict?

I really like my new stove, and I hope I get to play with the wood burner as much as the meths burner. It’s not a novice stove though. If you’re tempted to get one you will need to practise at home before relying on it in the field. Fire safety is a much bigger issue than with the meths burner, as it does produce sparks. Smoke can be a bit of a problem if the wood isn’t very dry. I’m hoping my fires will get less smoky as my fire lighting skills improve.

I’m very pleased with my new toy, but I still have a lot to learn.

Contrast

I’ve spent the last couple of weekends in Weardale and Teesdale. Known as the Durham Dales, they have their own characters despite sharing the same central fells. I wanted to get some walking and photography done, and maybe capture their differences on film, but our confused British weather had other ideas.

Every outdoors photographer will know that hot hazy days and dull gloomy ones are equally rubbish for taking photos – the light just isn’t on your side. So I was pleased with the forecast for my Weardale trip – dry with sunny intervals, meaning plenty of light and interesting clouds.

I took the bus up to Frosterley. I was going to go all the way to Stanhope but realised just in time that I had the wrong map. Weardale is right on the top edge of Explorer OL31 (Teesdale and Weardale), but the north side of Stanhope is on OL43 (Consett), which was at home. No problem – I like Frosterley.

The day started off bright and sunny, but the clouds were building on the tops. I headed up the south side of the dale, with a vague plan to find a circular route on Pikeston Fell. My side was bright with weak sunlight, but the north side was in deep shade – the hill was black. This is the kind of weather I hope for on a photography walk – interesting.

while my side of the Dale was bathed in light, the other side was in deep black shade

The sunlight and clouds make for very interesting scenes to photograph

Of course there is a flip side. By the time I got to the open access land on the top it had started raining. I watched a beautiful low rainbow over Frosterley village for about twenty minutes. Unfortunately it was still raining where I was, so I kept my camera safely tucked up in its waterproof bag.

The top of Pikeston Fell is bleak. The view is of bare yellow tracks and a bronze-and-black network of managed heather squares – this is a grouse moor. I had a choice of following ugly new tracks or the invisible calf-deep-in-heather right of way (I really can’t call it a footpath – there is no path to follow). Fine drizzle meant that the yellow track and silhouetted grouse butts were all that could be seen in the gloom. Occasionally crushed shards of galena – lead ore – glittered on the track. This is old lead mining country, and the sandstone used for the track is as local as you can get.

Someone's turned out the lights. I think there's a good view from here!

The track I was on took me down to a valley nestled between Pikeston Fell and Hamsterley Common. On a good day you can see the edge of Hamsterley forest and there is a small but beautiful wood at the Meeting of the Grains, where the North and South Grain becks converge. A very pretty picnic spot, and far enough from the road to keep those pesky leisure walkers away. A buzzard circled overhead – a surprisingly rare sight in the Pennines considering the abundance of rabbit carcasses. Visibility was terrible.

I now had a choice – turn round and head back along the boring track, or find the clearly-marked-on-the-map footpath. I had plenty of time, so took the footpath option.

An hour later and neck deep in bracken, I’d barely made the first mile and was starting to wonder if I was going to make the bus back. The path was intermittent and inaccurate, as all paths walked mainly by sheep are. After the tricky first mile, there was nothing for it but to take a compass bearing, brave the heather and head uphill and north.

Once I got to the top, and in sight of the footpath back to the village, of course the sun came out. But I couldn’t dawdle, I had a bus to catch.

Now it's time to leave the fell top, of course the sun comes out

The weather turned a bit weird the following week, as if the weather god woke up late and remembered he’d forgotten to turn the ‘summer’ switch on. It was really hot. In a surprise move, my Taller Half suggested an October camping trip. We settled on Doe Park in Cotherstone, Teesdale.

The forecast changed as soon as we made the booking with the campsite. Saturday was still going to be ridiculously hot (not that I’m complaining, you understand) while heavy rain was forecast for overnight and sunday.

Cotherstone is a lovely dales village halfway between Barnard Castle and Middleton-in-Teesdale. The three mile walk along the Teesdale Way from Barney to Doe Park felt like ten, it was so hot. Stopping for photos was out of the question – too much effort and the light was too bright. Never mind, we got to play with my new wood burning stove sitting by the river – but more about that in my next post.

It rained overnight but the walk back was mostly in warm drizzle. We didn’t get the forecast heavy rain, but again not a photo day. I managed to get a couple of misty-morning shots and that was it. Not a walking day either, as it was far too hot for walking far in waterproofs. At least this gave us plenty of time for a slow lunch at Penny’s cafe in Barnard Castle.

A misty morning at Doe Park farm. Where's the sun gone?

Now the weather is back to normal. Cold, windy, old fashioned autumn weather. Tonight the wind is bitter, and I believe snow is predicted for the end of the month. What a contrast.

Click on the photos to view large. More photos on flickr: Weardale set Teesdale set

A wild weekend

It’s raining again. This isn’t really a surprise as it’s been the theme of the weekend. Summer-like sunshine, cloud, rain, sun, rain, and on and on. This didn’t stop me from spending most of the weekend outside, and the rest of it gazing out the window.

Autumn is the season of foraging: fruits and berries are ripe or ripening, and there is so much wild produce the birds just can’t keep up. This gives us humans a window of opportunity to reap the wild harvest.

Everything has been early this year, and I’m sure there’s a difference between the north and the south, but in Durham the elderberries and blackberries are about half way through and beech mast and rosehips are just coming in to season. Sloes are thinking about ripening while the rowan berries are already starting to turn. The forager is fighting time, the weather, the wild beasties, and other foragers. I’ve found out the hard way that someone else has been keeping an eye on the local blackberries and elderberries, but today I’ve found a stash of ripe and unharvested elder trees, so keep off, rival forager (all’s fair in love and foraging).

Yesterday I slit my time between picking berries and doing things with them. I made hedgerow jelly, which it turns out is delicious in cream scones, and played about with this elderflower cheesecake recipe. I made the cheesecake as per the recipe but added a layer of elderberries cooked in hedgerow syrup to the base. I like this a lot!

cheesecake made with elderflower and elderberry, and hedgerow jelly & cream scone

This morning I played with my Caldera woodburning stove in the garden. There must be a knack to it, but so far I’m mainly good at making it smoky. I did manage to light it using only one match, so I’m getting there. I made two cups of tea and some boiled eggs. Self-sufficiency here I come!

playing with fire - making tea on my new toy

As I’ve temporarily run out of jars and bottles I decided not to make another foraging trip this morning. Instead my Taller Half and I took a walk through the woods, stopping off in Durham for a bite to eat. We came across this Panther Cap mushroom (pretty but poisonous) in St Oswald’s Church:

On the way back home we saw a double rainbow. What was special about this one was that we could see (or thought we could see) where both ends of the rainbow touched the earth. I know it’s an optical illusion, and that the rainbow moves when you move – it’s not really touching the earth – but it was nice to think that we could pinpoint the exact spot where the pot of gold was buried. I might take a look for it tomorrow. If you don’t hear from me again you’ll know I’ve found it…

Happy foraging and enjoy the wild weather.

Stanhope Show 2011

Stanhope Show is an agricultural and equestrian show held on the second weekend of September at Unthank Farm, just the other side of the river from Stanhope village in Weardale, County Durham. Last year I went for the first time and this year I managed to make it for the Saturday. Sadly, our public transport system has been ravaged by Government cuts so with no Sunday bus service I could not make the Sunday this year (yes, there is a heritage train, but the connections were awful).

It’s a small show, but the surroundings are to die for, and there’s a fun fair in the evening if you like that sort of thing. Our entertainment this year came from Stallions of Substance and Bolddog Lings Freestyle Motorcycle Team. There was poetry in that both displays consisted of two riders showing off their mounts and their skills. Stallions of Substance showed off their circus tricks and dressage moves. Bolddog Lings treated us to jaw-dropping freestyle mid air stunts.

Stallions of Substance in action. As part of their display, one rider 'shoots' the other rider, whose horse lays down playing dead. I'm very proud of this pic, as I've caught the gun firing.

Bolddog Lings display team in action. You know there's always a guy with a microphone explaining what's going on? You're looking at him!

There was show ring action from the showjumping and Welsh in hand, and the day ended with Sulky racing.

A Welsh Section D stallion having his picture taken

Sulky racing

More photos from this year’s and last year’s shows are on flickr. Enjoy!

My black and yellow house guests

I’ve started finding dead and dying wasps in the carpet and the kitchen sink. It’s that time of year of course, but I’m finding more than usual. Although given that there’s a wasp nest in the gutter it’s not a big surprise.

In early spring we had the usual queen wasps checking out the masonry and occasionally getting in the house and checking that too. A couple of bumble bee nests made themselves noticeable in the garden. The odd wasp. It was only on a very windy day that I noticed all these insects blowing about outside while I was doing the washing up. I went outside to see the air above the kitchen window full of wasps whipping about in the wind, all aiming for a little space behind the gutter. We had a wasp nest!

I’m sure some of you must be horrified by the thought of this, but I mainly felt proud and curious. I like wasps. I don’t like angry wasps that are chasing me around or writhing in the carpet with their stings out, but mostly they leave you alone if you leave them alone. Honest.

I haven’t been stung by a wasp since I was four. My dad was fishing on the river Stour in Kent and us kids had to occupy ourselves on the river bank. I don’t remember getting stung but I do remember that it hurt very much and I wasn’t very brave, but my mum gave me black coffee to drink and I’m sure she told me it was medicinal. For years I thought black coffee was a good cure for wasp stings.

I had a strange wasp-year when I was at junior school. They just seemed very attracted to me that summer. They landed on my face, crawled through my closed hand, over my (closed) mouth. Not just once, several times. I learnt that if you are still and quiet they don’t attack you but you have to have faith – and patience. To be honest, if I’d screamed and brushed the wasps off they still probably wouldn’t have stung me.

My closest encounter of the wasp kind was when I worked on a stud farm in Sussex. Working for peanuts (anyone remember the YTS scheme?) and living in a squalid caravan. It had what-was-once-luxury shag pile carpet. About an inch thick and encrusted with years of grime. No, we didn’t have a hoover. There was a damp patch in the kitchen area. If you trod on the electric cable from the fridge you got a tingly shock – I only did that once. We were actually more in danger from the wasps. There were hundreds of them, and they could get in the caravan even with all the doors and windows shut. They’d get stuck in the carpet and writhe around with their stings out for ages. We put wasp traps out (jam jars with watery jam in). Within half a day each jar would be full of very-hard-to-drown wasps. In hindsight, I guess leaving jam out only encouraged more wasps to come in, but amazingly, no one got stung.

They weren’t all so well behaved though. We had an open day every summer, and during the preparations a wasp nest must have been disturbed in the hay barn. I made the mistake of walking too close to the nest and and boy did I have to run – they chased me right round the yard. We had to close that section off to the public because the wasps were so aggressive.

Back to the present. For about a month or so we’ve been getting a lot of wasps in the kitchen, even if the doors and windows are shut. I think they are getting in somehow from their nest in the roof, and then try to get back to the nest from inside the kitchen.

While in August they were still energetic, now they are getting drowsy and weak. It won’t be long now before wear-and-tear and the cold weather finishes them off. I hope they’ve enjoyed their summer in the gutter though. I’ve enjoyed having them around.

 

My first tent and other gear

I’ve been thinking of writing a gear review for a while, but just never quite got round to it. I’ll start with my lovely tent…

It’s 2007 and my Taller Half and I decide to try out a couple of festivals – the Tapestry Goes West and Green Man festivals, both in Wales. The only way to do a festival is by camping, and we figured that camping holidays would be cheaper than staying at B&Bs all the time, so a tent could be a good investment. Only problem was, I’d never been camping before and had no idea if I would like it.

The joys of camping - plodding towards the shower block in the rain - but look at that view and the rainbow is AMAZING

I’d been buying TGO magazine for a while, and becoming indoctrinated into their ‘lightweight backpacking’ philosophy. But was it worth buying expensive gear if it turned out camping wasn’t for us? I did the maths, and it turned out that the gear would pay for itself on a two week camping holiday compared with two weeks staying at B&Bs. The decision was made.

Festival cooking at Green Man in the Brecon Beacons. My Taller Half is hiding in the tent

We chose the Terra Nova Superlight Solar 2.2, and this is the review that sold it to us (again, via TGO magazine). A delightful tent, it’s very light (the 2.2 is the weight in kilograms), and crucially has two porches – a luxury in the lightweight backpacking tent world. I’m sad to say that Terra Nova appear to have stopped making this tent, as it’s been excised from their website. A real shame, as the model is only four years old.

Our lovely tent in its natural habitat - here in the back garden of the Strathmore Arms, Holwick, Teesdale

We had an amazing time in Wales that summer, and I fell in love with camping and backpacking. I don’t do it nearly enough, but since getting our tent I’ve not stayed in a B&B outside the Winter season.

We’ve had this tent for four years now. It’s easy to set up, it’s never leaked, you can cook in the porch safely (with the door open, obviously), and it’s got minimal wear and tear. It has sustained some damage – from when a hungry hedgehog chewed through both the outer and inner layers – but we’ve repaired the damage ourselves. And although I do wash it with NikWax tech wash, I’ve never proofed it and it’s still fully waterproof. We’ve yet to try wild camping, but the double porch makes this the perfect tent to pitch up anywhere with views – two windows onto the world.

A move away from lightweight led me to invest in a pair of Paramo Cascada waterproof trousers. Paramo are clever. Their fabric dries itself. You can still get a bit wet, but I’ve found that so long as I wipe off the excess moisture, I can happily sit in the tent after a downpour with my trousers on and feel warm and dry. My trousers are not light or pretty, but they are real workhorses and so far I’ve resisted buying a skimpy pair of summer overtrousers. My next purchase will be a Paramo waterproof top, but so far my current top, and final review, is doing a grand job and not ready to retire.

I’ve worn an army anorak as my main waterproof jacket for years. It’s too big and has no pockets, and I’ve had to get the zip replaced, but I still wear it from time to time. However, I’d well and truly got the TGO bug for top notch gear and bought my Mountain Equipment Seraph jacket after TGO gave it a glowing review in 2008. I had very high expectations, and was very disappointed when my jacket started wetting out after only a few downpours. A got a replacement, and to be honest I think I just had magical expectations of this very lightweight piece of kit. In heavy rain the water tends to soak rather than bead on exposed areas, but I’ve never had water soak through to the inside. It’s also very quick to dry. Despite my rough treatment (stuffing and crumpling it into rucksacks, forgetting to wash it, ploughing through bramble patches on foraging expeditions…) it still has plenty of life in it and is a very good piece of kit. There’s a newer (and I believe better) version out now and I heartily recommend.

Standing on a hill in Oban, on Xmas day, sporting my jacket and trousers

My newest toy (again, TGO’s fault) is the Caldera ti-tri sidewinder ultra lightweight stove from Trail Designs based in Yosemite National Park, California. I had to get it shipped from the US and buy it in dollars! It burns meths, solid fuel and is easily converted into a wood burner. It hasn’t left my back garden yet, but I’ll keep you posted…

(photos with thanks to my Taller Half, who does not wish to be named)