To follow my journal and receive updates when I publish a new post, add your email to the subscribe box below, or click the Follow link in the bottom right of the screen.
-
Today (or thereabouts) it’s the shortest day of the year. The long night. Gale force winds are rocking the caravan I’m sheltering in for the winter. The sun is making a low arch across the tops of the bare trees. Twigs litter the muddy, muted green of the grass. Bluetits and nuthatches visit the coconut
-
Before I had my van, Nessie, I had a car. A very small car. She was my first taste of life on the road. My tiny-home-on-wheels, version 1. A few weeks before leaving my job in higher education in 2015, I had a sudden surge of inspiration while I was dropping off to sleep one
-
A question I get asked regularly is why I’ve chosen to live in a van. The answer lies somewhere between choice and necessity. Mainly, this is a choice because I know of no other way that I could live with this relative freedom to park up in many natural, wild spaces and get the immersion
-
For those who have read my previous journal posts, it may be clear that I enjoy foraging. Foraging has taken on many forms for me, and this continues to grow as I learn more and experience each turning season and visit new places. Foraging extends deeper than a way to fill my belly. Undoubtedly that’s
-
This September it’s eight years since I left my job in higher education. I could never have planned the journey I’ve been on since leaving. I just knew in my bones that I had to leave, to move somewhere else, to move in different ways. Maybe I had some idea that I might travel in
-
August and September are the months when my fungi field guides and foraging books make an appearance. I pore over them like a gripping novel. Each year I get to know a few more fungi, some tentatively, with plenty of cross-referencing for reassurance. It’s taken me years to build up the knowledge and experience to
-
My relationship with spinning began when I was walking near Gurnal Dubs, one of my favourite lesser-known spots in the Lake District, in 2017. As I walked, I collected scraps of Herdwick wool that sheep had shed across the fell. I sat down in a sheltered spot, my back leaning against a sun-warmed crag, and
-
A river of chanterelles spot-lighted by sunlight squinting through the tree canopy. This, for me, signals the season of abundance and harvest. There’s nothing so exciting for me as finding droplets of gold among the moss and beech leaf litter. It’s a simple and wild kind of delight, and the joy is fleshed out by
-
my simple van setup and practical considerations My van, affectionately named Nessie, has been my home on wheels for a few years now. For those who are interested in the vehicle particulars, she’s a Vauxhall Movano long wheelbase, high top roof, 2004 registration. She was originally an NHS patient transport vehicle and so she was
-
The bilberries and raspberries have been abundant in the little corner of South West Scotland I’ve been exploring this July. I love how my fingers are stained purple from picking, and my tongue turns blue from the wild feast. When I’ve had my bellyful, I like to smoosh some basket-bruised berries on pieces of card
stravaig 