Welcome to Old John's blog!

14 Feb 2009 11:04 PM

Still finding it difficult to sleep, due to the aches and pains associated with broken bones, I decided to stay up late and watch a James Bond movie made as far back as 1963.  How times have changed.

James, to make a phone call, visited a public telephone system and I wonder what he would have said if someone explained that, there was another way of doing things, as there is today, the mobile phone.

I am one of those people that loves gadgets but I have to say, when it comes to using the mobile phone, I have no interest in it what so ever.  You might say, when you learn I have now have a phone as a constant companion, that I am compromising what I have just said.

In truth, I am getting older and I will explain.

When I was a young man, in my mid twenties, I developed a passion for the countryside and, whenever I could, I went out walking and loved it.  My wife, and friend, when she could, would go out with me but, sadly, those days are becoming less frequent these days. 

When people first start out with any new hobby, they need to be around people, to learn the basics, but, as they progress through the stages of learning, they tend to begin to specialise.  I am at the specialisation stage with nature and find it difficult to be around people who wish to ask questions all the time but I still put time aside to help the novices when I am not doing a project.  I see it as my duty to pass on some of the things I have learned over the years.

In wooded areas, I have only been partially lost on one occasion, for it was foggy.  I suppose it is a matter of being able to read the signs. 

Put me behind the wheel of a car and, if I should have turned left, you can bet, nine times out of ten times, I would turn right.  This is very frustrating to my wife who is the navigator.

It never dawned on me, while walking in the woods on my own, that I was alone, and that I would not be able to cope if anything happened to me. 

The truth is, no matter how much you know about nature, and no matter how prepared you are, no one can be fully conversant with the horrors of what the cold weather holds for us.  Getting cold and sometimes perspiring, at the wrong time, can work against any survival technique.

One day, when I had been out on my own longer than usual, for I was intrigued by a grey squirrel that started to make a barking noise I had not heard before-I stayed with the squirrel until I found out what all the commotion was about-I returned home to find  my wife was concerned as to where I may have been.  The next day, a mobile phone became my friend. 

Today, if I think I am going to be longer than the time I have given my wife, before setting out, the phone is quickly used.
One of the things about going out for a walk, if trying to achieve a specific task, is to carry the right gear for the job.  Binoculars are necessary for me and sometimes a telescope fixed to a tripod.  When I was younger, I put my family first and did not purchase all the things I thought I needed; it was a case of 'make do and mend.' 

My waterproof clothing was borrowed from my father, who was a keen angler, and my binoculars were second hand.  Binoculars that are discarded, if they are in good condition, are usually sold on because they are too heavy. Four or five hours of carrying heavy binoculars, round you neck, are not always conducive.

Thankfully, things are much different today for I am now able to purchase lightweight binoculars and I can, along with the mobile, carry a camera that would, when I was young, have been so heavy I would not have been able to walk far.

Until last year, I knew very little about what I could get, for a reasonable priced lightweight camera, but an internet blogger, on another site, gave me a full explanation of what I may like to look at.  I have to say, for the first time, the lightweight camera, I now use, is probably the best piece of kit I have ever owned.  It is a pity that I have yet to understand how to put some of the photos on my blogs.

Today, some of the knowledge I have gained, over about 35 years, I have been able to use in our own back garden.  We are now able to attract species of birds, to our garden, that I would not have seen when I first started bird watching.

Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Great, Blue, Coal and Long Tail Tits are common visitors along with Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Sparrow hawks and, would you believe, a Hobby. 

Of course, the environment has changed since I first began to go out on a nature walk and I am pleased to say, due to my hard work and the hard work of many of my friends, we were able to create areas, for nature, that had been lost years before.  On one site I go to, where my friends and I planted tree saplings years ago, I can now walk up to mature trees and look up into the sky, at wonderment, as to how beautiful the trees now look.

If you are interested, for I do not know if you are, I will write about some of the exploits I have undertaken when out on my walks.

By for now,

John.       

 

View Comments (3)