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!

Otherwise engaged…

27th November 2007

For one reason or another, this month has not seen me spending more time among hills than a few hours of afternoon walking. True, the days are shorter now but I have been known to make  the most of whatever was on offer. Last November saw me atop the Brecon Beacons while December saw me head to Harlech and Bellingham. Those excursions prove that there is still some wonder to be experienced at this time of year so there have to be other reasons why I haven’t had at least a full day in the outdoors this time around.

Grey weather can be blamed but there was another distraction: a technological upheaval at home. A frightful weekend with Windows led me to try jumping ship to Linux, Ubuntu as it happens, for my home computing needs. What started out as an experiment became a permanent state of affairs; I have tried Linux before so I was open to the trial not working out. Thanks to the wonders of modern software technology, I can run Windows and Linux at the same time so money spent on Anquet mapping has not been wasted and my iTunes music library remains available to me. Like any new thing, Linux for me has meant learning new things, resolving new problems and setting things up differently. All that has taken time, time that could have spent on other things, things like hillwalking. I suppose that there was a certainly novelty about the experience too but the novel has become the everyday so my mind can turn now to other things.

Of course, being the time of year that it is, Christmas shopping and other such preparations need doing but walking at this time of year can be a wonderful experience. For me, it’s the magic of walking on a bright crisp sunny day that does it for me and the light is something that pleases the photographic side of me. Being the camera wielding hiker that I am, the magic of the light at this time of year has its draw on me and there are some wonderful opportunities in November and December when conditions are right. In fact, thoughts of opportunities grasped in the last few years have me thinking about pottering out and about. Photography-friendly weather would be nice but I might just head off on a reconnaissance visit to somewhere different regardless. We’ll see…

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