New blog

So I decided to start a new blog, I've enjoyed writing this one, blogger's been a great introduction to blogging for me but now I want something that'll do a little bit more. stuartdart.wordpress.com is my new blog/website, I've moved some of the content over from here already, and a little bit more of it will be going too, but I'll leave the posts up with links to the relevant pages on my new site so you'll still be able to find all my old content via this blog.

Thanks for reading, I hope you've all enjoyed your time here, I certainly have, and I hope you join me on my blog.

The address again: www.stuartdart.wordpress.com

Bye for now,

Stuart.

Motorcycle emptiness

Not a great deal to say here really, just wanted to share a few photos of a place I found whilst out for a wander yesterday, a little hidden gem of a place. Probably not the style of photograph that people would expect from me, but I love to see scenes like this. I find it somewhat comforting to know that no matter how hard we try to ruin the planet with our junk and carelessness nature will always be there fighting back, and given enough time she'll always win. We're not as important as we think we are.

Anyway, here's a few photos of rotting motorcylce parts for your viewing pleasure, as always, feedback's greatly appreciated.

Thanks for looking,

Bye for now,

Stuart.

My new job

Hello all, and sorry for the prolonged period of silence, I know it's no excuse at all but I've been pretty busy since the middle of last Spring with my new job. Believe it or not (I'm still unconvinced) I'm now a professional bushcrafter!

Early last year Paul Kirtley of Frontier Bushcraft most generously offered me the opportunity to work with the team at Frontier as an assistant, and I jumped at the offer. My first season was fantastic, having an opportunity to simply get out in the woods with a great team of people and share a little of our collective knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject was amazing. I worked in education for a while when I was in my early 20's, and I really enjoyed it at the time, somehow though I'd forgotten how personally rewarding I found it. At the risk of sounding horribly pretentious, the feeling that I can, in some small way, empower other people is an amazing one, and Bushcraft is a great subject for the purpose. Simply taking a group of people out into the woods and showing them how to pitch a tarp to keep the rain off and make a simple fire to brew up on, and seeing how much a basic understanding of those simple skills does empower people, is a wonderful feeling.

I really never expected to work in education again, and I certainly never expected to make any kind of money out of Bushcraft, but here we are, paid work with a top Bushcraft school, and, as you've probably already guessed, I'm absolutely made up about it.

Well chuffed with my new job!
(photo courtesy of Austin Lill)

So, the purpose of this blog was twofold, firstly to explain my prolonged period of silence, and secondly to say thanks to Paul and the team at Frontier for a great start to a new job and a wonderful first season, thank you all for making me so welcome, I feel both honoured and proud to be part of the best bushcraft team around.

All the best,

Stuart.

Mobile phones for the outdoors

I've moved a lot of content over to my new blog, this page included. If you want to read my mobile phone article you can find it here

All the best,

Stuart.