Rain and Fog
The weather changed my plans.
The hotel grounds has some great picnic spots so that is as far as I walked today for a brew. Indian Chai with a view of the River.
tea
Morning tea in the garden
The weather is nice enough today to have my mid-morning tea out in the garden – watching a movie on Netflix.
The tomato plant has gone into the compost bin and the top compost from the pot has gone onto the raspberry patch. Total crop from the tomato plant was about a Pyrex bowl of cherry tomatoes. And we thought that it would produce very little – in fact Alyssa thought the plant was dead!
Morning tea in the garden Read More »
Walking
I went out to the Blankney Walks today – but before that, this was the view from the office this morning.
There is a useful picnic table near the car park with good views. I brewed Chai tea, on a solid fuel stove I keep in the car and read a book in the late autumn sun.
I missed the rain whilst I was walking and during the tea break although I could see rain around me – however when I got back to Branston there was rainbow.
Working breakfast
It was a late breakfast probably more like lunch.
A bacon sandwich should be made with white bread – but this is my own homemade wholemeal bread so I will make an exception. Smoked bacon. Ketchup but brown sauce sauce if you insist. Tea not coffee.
Walking along the River Slea with lightweight gear
As I had the day off because of the American Football, I made bread and went for a walk, took some photos in what may be the last of the summer sunshine and made some coffee. I grabbed my Finnish haversack and some lightweight gear and headed out before the rain came. (Some of this blog was written whilst I was walking and some when I got home.)
Coffee
I found a log down by the river to sit on to make some coffee.
I have a small twig stove from Bushcraft Essentials, in my cook set but I use gel fuel in it, and use a Burt’s Bees tin as a burner. I carry the fuel in a re-purposed hand sanitise bottle. It makes a truly lightweight brew stove when out walking – when the tin/burner is brim of fuel it can heat about 250ml of water hot enough for coffee, noodles or soup.
Rather than use the ground coffee and tea strainer from the cook set I chose to use a coffee bag – this brand from Taylors makes a good strong brew in the amount of water I had.
Weir and lock
Well there was a lock, weir and associated machinery here in the past.
I used the Camera+2 app for the long shutter speed motion effect.
More Walking
Gear in the Haversack
For lightweight trips the Finnish Haversack can hold enough gear and I use it rather than one of my small rucksacks in the summer when I do not extra clothes and gear.
Contents today:
- Backpacking cook set
- Breakfast biscuit snacks and coffee
- British Army bush hat
- Lightweight poncho (camouflage as it was the lightest one I could get on Amazon during the lockdown)
- Lightweight picnic ground cloth
- 500ml steel water bottle – with an MSR 350ml titanium mug pushed on the bottom
- 1l dry bag for electronics, Anker power pack, charge cable, Victorinox Swiss Card etc
- Paracord (about 5m)
- Small belt pouch – simple first aid kit, mini Petzl head torch, tea and coffee supplies, vegetable Oxo cube, salt packets, soup and chilli packs from instant noodles, Silva compass with thermometer, string, hotel sewing kit with some extra strong thread added to it, safety pins, Traditional Case mini Trapper knife, sharpening stone, duck tape patch, army style tin opener, refillable lighter, lifeboat whistle and lanyard for my Victorinox Camper knife, eye drops bottle re-purposed for hand sanitiser.
The little pouch is well packed for a trip like this but when I am on longer trips or away the lanyard and whistle are in use so making the rest of the items more accessible.
All images made with my iPhone 12 Pro Max which I carry in a belt case for lightweight trips like this.
Walking along the River Slea with lightweight gear Read More »
Photos for the Octagon Blog
Today’s photos are for use in a blog on the Octagon website and 365R, later this week.
Here is the article – Cool stuff about Microsoft 365 for Business
Photos for the Octagon Blog Read More »
Cooking outside
Alyssa and I cooked our lunch outside on the camp stove – bacon sandwiches – one with peanut butter the other with tomato ketchup – I had tea and she had chocolate milkshake.