How To Make a Folding Bucksaw
Folding bucksaws are a simple means of taking a large saw with you on a trip. Quick to assemble and neat to carry in a case or pack, this size of saw is a natural partner to an axe. Folding bucksaws can be packed…
The Value of a Tarp in Your Day-Pack
With heavy rain being a fairly regular feature here in the UK – even during the summer – I rarely, if ever, go for a day hike without taking a waterproof jacket. This is hardly an earth-shattering revelation as I’m sure this preference is almost universal amongst those heading for the great British outdoors. What’s probably less common is packing a tarp. Including a tarp in your day-pack isn’t limited to the UK, however, as it makes sense anywhere you might have damp or cold-damp weather and you can string…
A Bushcraft Camping Outfit – Equipment for Living in the Woods
Whether you are camping in the woods for a weekend or staying out for weeks, this bushcraft camping outfit is a good base model. By keeping your wilderness bushcraft camping equipment as simple and streamlined as possible you’ll minimise the amount of kit while maximising its functionality…
Hottentot Fig, Carpobrotus edulis
The Hottentot Fig, Carpobrotus edulis is a southern African plant. Introduced to Europe, the plant can be found entirely naturalised in some coastal habitats, particularly sea cliffs and sand-dunes. The plant tends be quite…
Red Dead-Nettle, Lamium purpureum
Red Dead-nettle, Lamium purpureum, is a common plant of country tracks and hedgerows. It is often found on or near farmland and sometimes described as an arable weed. Similar to other dead-nettles it has toothed, heart-shaped leaves. Red Dead-nettle, however, bears much less…
White Dead-Nettle, Lamium Album
Even though White Dead-nettle is not an aromatic herb like some of its other family members, it is edible. White Dead-nettle, Lamium album has toothed, heart-shaped leaves that look very similar to the leaves of Stinging Nettle, Urtica dioica, a plant which is familiar to many. White Dead-nettles and Stinging Nettles also share other charcteristics such as having leaves arranged…
A Personal Wilderness First Aid Kit: What to Include?
The best wilderness first aid kits are ones where the contents, your experience and the likely risks are in sync. This is why assembling your own kit is the best option. The choice of equipment to include in your kit is a personal one. The process of optimising your first aid kit and training, as well as assessing the risks you might face, improves your wilderness survival skills and maximises your….
Greater Stitchwort, Stellaria holostea
Greater Stitchwort, Stellaria holostea, is a very common plant of wayside verges and open woodlands. Until it flowers, however, it is easily missed. Greater Stitchwort is a relative of Common Chickweed, Stellaria media, and like Chickweed, Greater Stitchwort is an easily-collected source of edible wild greens…
Common Dog-violet, Viola riviniana: Spring herbage
Common Dog-violet, Viola riviniana, is the most common violet in the UK and provides some useful herbage for a wild salad. The leaves have a pleasant flavour with only a little bitterness and making it a wild food worth picking up as you forage, particularly in the spring. It flowers March to May and is then easy to spot but a little less so at other times. The leaves and flowers are edible…
Brooklime, Veronica beccabunga
Brooklime, Veronica beccabunga, is an edible leafy green plant of damp freshwater places. You can eat the leaves and stem. The name may be unfamiliar but the plant is relatively common. You’ll find brooklime growing in boggy ground (the sort in which you’d wished you’d worn boots, not shoes), on the damp margins of ponds, streams and rivers and sometimes…