I returned from Shadowhawk's tracking course at Canonteigne on Monday mentally and physically tired, wet, but elated. It's easy to over-enthuse about a course when you've just finished it, so I'll just let it all sink in. But the first impressions are that it was an amazing, eye-opening course that exceeded all my expectations.

Back to reality. My

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We're just back from hols in Menorca. Not much bushcrafting going on, but we did manage to visit some archeological areas of interest, namely bronze age settlements with Taliotic structures, burial grounds and the the strange T-shaped Taulas. These are thought to have religious significance connected to astronomy (a bit like Stonehenge).

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Well, I'm off again at the weekend for a week's holiday in Menorca. (Another one Pablo?) Yes, another one. No, we're not rich. We just didn't have a holiday last year because of work. I must admit, I'm looking forward to getting away from the atrocious weather we're having in England at the moment. The picture shows yet another front coming

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I was eager to get out after torrential rain prohibited an overnighter and I was up with the proverbial larks this morning.

I packed up the day sack and on the spur of the moment, reached for the pocket cooker to cook breakfast on. I also took the small frying pan from the civilian trangia unit to make things easier.

The woods were very damp and the

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The woods were very quiet over the weekend. The Rook chics had fledged (Ah.. the peace) and the undergrowth had grown to such an extent it was difficult to see any wildlife. This forced me to wander around the meadows and fields area where I came across some Bee orchids, Iris, Common blue damselfly and the bright blue male broad-bodied chaser.

 On the way back

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I survived the weekend visiting my folks. Yes, the stifling hotel was airless and hot while the the incessant sound of sirens nearly drove me insane. The sea-front meal was fine but gave me indigestion all night.

 On the way home I decided on check out where I spent the first 6 years of my life.

The house was there and so were the woods where I used to play and

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I'm not looking forward to the seemingly endless concrete motorway, the smell of the city, urban traffic jams, endless streams of people on the street and the over-heated hotel where you can only open the window wide enough to pass through your credit card.

I am looking forward to seeing the old folks and an evening meal at a nearby cosmopolitan sea-front restaurant hopefully taking in

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Just back from the moot and fingers thawing out at last. A fantastic few days with lots of new skills learnt (thanks Jason for the bow drill lesson - Bob for the cordage session). Great talks from Stuart and a wonderful Viking story from Wayland.

 The final night was pretty rough for those of us that didn't retreat to the barn. Had to move Mark from the edge of

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Preparations are well under way for the Bushmoot and I'm getting petty excited to get away, meet the BCUK crew again and hopefully get stuck in and learn a few more skills. Actually, there's not a great deal to do as I'm getting pretty used to deciding what to take on excursions. All my kit is readily available in two drawers of an old filing cabinet and my (

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Well, let's see how this all works. I've already got quite an extensive blog at www.pablo475.blogspot.com so these entries will be quite short. Great idea though. It's a great way of seeing what other people are up to.

Today was archery practice day. I'm going to take the Korean bow to the spring bushmoot so I wanted to do a little practice. Have a look at the video posted on the blog site.

I finished the day by

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