Outdoor Discoveries

What originally was a news section for the rest of the website soon became a place for me to write about human-powered wanderings in the countryside. Photography inspires me to get out there, mostly on foot these days, though cycling got me started. Musings on the wider context of outdoor activity complete the picture, so I hope that there is something of interest in all that you find here. Thank you for coming!

Faster?

21st February 2022

Recently, I noticed that this website felt a bit sluggish so I moved it to a new server in a lift and shift operation. This was another act in a spurt of website tinkering that is ongoing. Alternatives to WordPress and Drupal are being tried so I am examining Hugo and Django along with any other tools that come my way.

Of these, Hugo has been used in a few of my websites this year and my public transport website was one of them. While its overhaul did mean moving to a static website, automated building along with added speed and security were among the advantages of making the change. This route is a technical one but I am largely happy with the changeover and have used the same approach for other websites as well.

While other websites are being overhauled, any changes to this website will happen organically. Its use of WordPress, TextPattern, Bootstrap and other technologies will remain. Where there is a need to change things, Django offers other possibilities so they could get assessed as well. Otherwise, the main priority of sharing experiences and inspirations remains so these will appear as they come my way.

Lazy loading

5th September 2020

It may be autumn now and the nights really are drawing in on us but I still have walking ideas. They are fairly local, which is useful given the times in which we find ourselves. For instance, I have another idea for a walk between Whaley Bridge and Macclesfield: this one would go via the Goyt Valley instead of Taxal Edge where the previous ones went.

There is another and that brings me to recent wanderings. One of those took me from Leek to Buxton via Ramshaw Rocks. Since the day became dull, I would like to go back to those rocky outcrops again to come away with better photos. The route could be varied according to available hours of daylight if so needed.

Other rambles did better with sunshine. One took me around hills near Church Stretton in Shropshire while another gained me my only exposure to sea air of the year so far. That was around the Great Orme near Llandudno in Wales and it rounded off an extended bank holiday weekend that also featured the aforementioned Shropshire and Staffordshire/Derbyshire hikes. All were good for my emotional well-being during what has been a very tough year.

As a dark patch continues to lift, I also got in some website tinkering and that explains the title of this post. Some may not have heard of the term but many will have encountered the behaviour: a web page that does not load all at once but only when a visitor scrolls down far enough to need the outstanding sections. That is called lazy loading and I decided to try it out with the images on this blog. If it is too much of an acquired taste or is too distracting, just let me know and I will make adjustments. Otherwise, the tinkering and the toddling will continue.

Cabin bound

26th February 2020

The title of this post could have been “Cabin Fever” but there is a good reason why that is not the case. It is true to say that February’s weather has not been inspiring this year with a storm arriving most weekends but there is also the draw of indoors activity and the need to attend to working life matters too.

There also has been some tinkering on the technology side and that also applies to the operation of this website too. Most of this is behind the scenes and all of that is about keeping out unwanted visitors, spammers included, so that things run more smoothly. The appearance on mobile devices is another matter that needed attention and things should appear better on smartphones after the remediation.

Along the way, there was much to learn and there always was another thing to try. that may remain but, COVID-19 permitting, there is a need to get out of doors too. With the debt caused by the purchase of a new camera now paid off, any better weather in March could be used using an old trick of mine: booking an associated night in a nearby hotel. After that, there is the Easter weekend which rather spoiled me last year while I was in Edinburgh. Some pondering and planning lies ahead.

Photographic recollections new and old

22nd May 2017

During March, I made a start on two new photo albums to the gallery on here. One is made of photos from a trip timed between Christmas 2016 and New Year 2017 while another collects ones from a trip made in August 2008.  As well as being separated by nearly a decade, they also represent two very different stages of my life.

Though on the cusp of what we now call the Great Recession, the earlier outing took place in simpler times compared to today. My personal circumstances were more straightforward back then too and they facilitated many a trip to Scotland. Included among those was a week long escapade that took in Skye and the Western Isles so it was not before time that photos of the latter made their appearance in their own album.

Though some of the exposure conditions were more challenging, photos of Mallorca took less time to make their appearance in the photo gallery. Meeting strong sunshine somewhere in wintertime made for an unfamiliar experience so the resulting photos are the result of a learning experience in a part of the world that I reckon many find challenging to capture photographically. Blue heat haze was part of the challenge as was the combination of scrubby vegetation and bare limestone rock. Even so, my hope is that a good start has been made.

It was only at the start of the month that I finally got to publishing these new albums on here. Even with an ongoing sabbatical, the need for rest slowed down the processing of image editing and the adding of descriptive text. Even now, I find myself yearning for another sabbatical though financial discipline needs restoring first.

Additions, revisions and other diversions

19th August 2016

With things weighing on my mind, this has not been a summer full of getaways like the one two years ago though local walks and outings have been known to happen. Last summer was one full of cycling and this one has not gone like that for a number of reasons.

That is not to say that there have been no thoughts about trips away and I am wondering about a mid-winter getaway while pondering what 2017 might hold. Things might remain uncertain for me but looking through magazines to collect website links has been setting me to thinking. Some of these have been outdoors magazines while others have been travel ones so quite a selection has built up for clearance and I am glad to have filed things away for most of the backlog by now.

Most of these pertain to visitor information that I am filing away for reference as well as adding to the travel section of the website and some trails have been added to the More Outdoor Activities Inspiration page. There are some that don’t fit as easily and ones like Get Ireland Walking, Britain on Foot, and Walking for Health fitting into the activity encouragement category, something that I probably need at the moment. Then, there are conservation organisations like Buglife, RSPB, BirdLife International, Scottish Wildcats, Vincent Wildlife, Vincent Wildlife Ireland, Scottish Beavers and Hedgelink UK that I also found in Ramblers’ Walk magazine. These are a reminder that we cannot forget about the natural world about us no matter what comes our way in life.

Another diversion has been a BBC documentary series on New Zealand, a country that I would not mind seeing even if the distance there means that it is not an essential destination for me. Still, it is good to see what is there it appears to be a greener counterpart of Iceland in many ways. My mind is getting used to roving around the world now but I still should rove about Britain and Ireland when the opportunities arise. They may have a use in soothing my spirit over coming months.