Live life outdoors

Due to some peculiar circumstances Mrs F and I found ourselves holidaying in Southern Florida for five days recently, and I have to say that generally it was an amazing experience and I managed to do another bucket list tick, more on that later. Firstly I need to address the issue of the Floridian Lizard People who are born on the Sun! In a place where the temperature is around 30c (86f for the Lizard People) and rarely drops below 20c (68f) it is not necessary to carry a sweater around as “it might get a bit cooler later”. Nor is it necessary for Walmart to sell slippers and fleecy pyjamas! You are crazy people! Rant over! On our first full day we went for an airboat ride out in the Everglades. We had a guy called Gus as our skipper who was awesome. We didn’t see too much wildlife as it is just coming to the end of the rainy season and everything is still spread out across the glades. What we did see was brilliant though, including a close up encounter with an alligator...

As I said the other day Life has an unfortunate habit of getting in the way sometimes and camping trips this year have been another of its victims. I’ve managed to get out several times to chill in my hammock in the woods for a few hours at a time but haven’t managed to get away camping; until last night that is. I spent yesterday morning sorting and airing my kit. Making sure that everything was in good order and repair and that I had everything that I needed. I just about managed to pack it all into my rucksack. I think I need a new, bigger one; but when I mention rucksacks to Mary her face takes on a very stern, grown up look! Anyway I got everything stowed that I wanted to take with me and it was comfortable enough to carry. I wasn’t going to be walking too far but it was still going to be a case of being able to carry everything in and out as well. I knew I would be coming home in the dark this morning so I wanted to be as comfortable as possible. So off I bimbled to my...

It’s been a while since I did my last blog, but sometimes life has a horrible habit of getting in the way! Anyway, what have I been up to? I’ve been to Austria and did some hiking in the mountains, and also managed to see some marmots, edelweiss and Alpine Chough. Not a bad haul for one holiday. I’ve also been out in the kayak and helped a friend from work reignite his passion for the sport. Anytime you want to go out again Adam just let me know! I’ve also been trying to get the garden up to scratch for the winter and been sorting out crops for planting now and harvesting what we’ve grown over the summer. In all of this I’ve been aided and abetted by my much better half, Mary. We’ve also not long since celebrated our 10 th wedding anniversary. Anyway, I have a nice long weekend now (treating myself for my birthday) so this morning I decided to go on a little bit of a fungi foray as it’s that time of year. Mushrooms seem to be a real Marmite thing. You either love them or hate th...