WEEKLY BLOG EPISODE 135 | FIRST DAWN LIGHT OF 2024

Happy New Year!

We’re a little over 24-hours in… how has 2024 been for you so far?!

Did you jump in with both feet, excited for the year ahead, spending the first day of the year setting goals, going on a really cool adventure, and eating the biggest and most colourful meal you could create? Or, did you crawl out of bed in a daze, spend the day hiding from the world, and muse on why some people are convinced things will be different when the clock struck midnight?!

I’m a bit of a combination of the two, I guess. I like New Year and the permission it gives me to both look back and plan ahead. I also really enjoy the motivation it provides to get up and out to see sunset and sunrise from my local hill (more on that in a moment). What I always like, though, is making the most of opportunities I’m given, and that is certainly something I hope for myself over the coming year.

A Very Wet Twixmas

Since my last weekly blog, I have been trying make the most of my time off work by getting a few jobs done at home, doing some much-needed resting, and giving my writing hobby some proper attention. I’ve been reasonably productive I think, continuing to set up my new motorbike as I want it, writing the last two posts in my Cotswold Way series (the first will be published on Thursday), preparing my February photo challenge (you’re already excited about that, right?!), and getting some house jobs sorted such as fitting a much better light in the garage, catching up on chores, and starting a much-needed clutter clear out.

But with that, there have been no proper hikes, no bucket list ticks, no new and exciting experiences. The time between Christmas and New Year has felt very short this year for some reason, something to do with where the bank holidays have fallen perhaps, and to be frank the weather has been abysmal – far too wet and windy for anything too fun.

It hasn’t helped that I’m completely full of cold, and have been for a few days, but I guess it’s forced me to concentrate on the neglected at-home matters for a change. Apart from the productive stuff mentioned above I’ve also had some excellent sofa-time, watching other people’s adventures on YouTube, reading my Jokabolaflod book, planning future blog posts, and listening to music. Even sans adventure, it’s been a pretty good week off work. Shame I have to go back… but I guess normal routine had to return at some point. Needs must, and all that!

A Touch of Sales Shopping

My mum, sister and I went to Fosse Shopping Park on the outskirts of Leicester, for our annual sales shopping trip this year. Fosse Park is an out-of-town shopping area with a bunch of large shops – not a shopping mall or an outlet centre, but rather a weird collection of large clothes shops in amongst sofa shops and supermarkets. Our post-Christmas trip is less about the shopping and more about the coffee, lunch and catching up, but the fact there was a large Next, TK Maxx and H&M (etc) gave us enough for a mooch.

My purchases were not abundant, but I picked up a few bits, namely some black jeans from Next (a surprisingly good fit and only £15), a pair of joggers and a sweater from H&M, and a notebook from WHSmiths. Oh, and a couple of plain bralettes from M&S. All very practical things, but practical is important!

It’s a shame I hardly use cash these days, as it means my annual £2 coin collection is quite miniscule. In years gone by I’ve been able to treat myself to quite a few lovely things thanks to the habit of putting any £2 coins received into a money box; my The North Face Nuptse Vest and beautiful brown leather Cambridge Satchel are two examples I can think of. But alas, now my ‘spare change’ doesn’t add up in quite the same way!

A New Coat

Even without those £2 coins, there are a couple of slightly spendy items on my shopping list that I’m planning to purchase at some point in the not-too-distant future. One of those is to replace my all-time-favourite winter coat, my The North Face Honee Snugs Parka, now over a decade old.

I’m somewhat tempted to get incredibly spendy and treat myself to the Fjallraven Nuuk Parka, which is exactly the coat I have in my head. But as it is probably over twice as much as I would be willing to spend (and I’ve never saved that amount in £2 coins in one year!), it’s unlikely. I don’t know, would you spend £500 on a winter coat?!

I would expect it to do absolutely everything – everyday wear in winter, keep me bone dry and warm, work for winter (snow) hiking, winter holidays, even skiing (if we ever go again), and so on – but I’m sure there is something similar-looking and still decent in terms of specification out there. I’ll keep looking! And will make do for the time being.

Starting the Spring Clean Early

Anyone else feel like the ticking over of the New Year clock is a great time for a clear out? Well we clearly do, because that’s exactly what we’ve been doing over the last few days. Why wait for spring?! Might as well use the dark evenings on this task now so the lighter evenings in April are available for outdoor fun.

Anyone who’s been round to mine knows I don’t have a house obviously full of stuff – my husband and I prefer not to have clutter on display. Our shelves aren’t full of ornaments or trinkets, just a few special items, and we prefer cupboards with doors over open shelving where possible. As an example, we keep the toaster in the cupboard and get it out when we need it – its presence on the worktop makes our limited kitchen space look untidy. But looks can be deceiving; the stuff and nonsense is undeniably there, it’s just in drawers and cupboards!

One Room at a Time

We decided to work our way around the house room by room, and are ending this between Christmas and New Year period having sorted through everything in the lounge, dining room, kitchen and home office. That’s the downstairs done. We’ve been reasonably ruthless I’d say, keeping what we need, plus the things we like, but piling up everything else ready to sell, give away, or throw away.

The kitchen has probably been the hardest so far in terms of the amount of stuff that’s piled up, especially in the utensils drawer, but it’s so much easier to find things now. Honestly, why would any normal home cook possibly need 12 wooden spoons?! Although the office did involve going through a drawer full of biro pens, there must have been over a hundred of them – we now only have the working ones!  

Now we need to pay attention to the upstairs… and I dread to think what will happen when it’s time to do the loft and garage. Maybe we’ll leave those until next Christmas! I guess I’ll let you know in a future weekly blog if we ever got the rest of the rooms done or not.

New Year’s Eve Sunset

It’s become something of a personal tradition since moving to Gloucestershire, to end my year with a sunset walk – and start the New Year with a sunrise walk. Witnessing the sunset and sunrise duo when the year ticks over from old to new seems to perfectly combine my love of spending time outside with my inclination to think deeply about things. There is something incredibly appropriate about watching the sun go down on one year, and to see the first dawn light of the new one.

The weather, and therefore sky, doesn’t always play ball; often there’s no colour to the sunset or sunrise, but I’ve been motivated to go anyway. It’s become my tradition, and I rather like it. It certainly helps having a stunning hilltop on which to view the distant horizon not too far from home.

This year’s New Year sunset was actually courtesy of my church. A group of us went up onto the hill together, and so my New Year’s Eve sunset was not experienced alone. I say sunset, there was a hint of one for a short time, but the weather just didn’t let the colour get going properly. It was blowing a hoolie (flask of tea was required), and the rain did more than threaten us. Still, it was a fitting way to spend my last One Hour Outside of 2023.   

I spent the rest of the evening doing some of my favourite things – writing, eating, sorting through our Morocco photographs (no, still not all done), watching some television, and reading a chapter of my book. I didn’t quite make it to watch the clock officially click over into 2024, but I’m sure the New Year doesn’t mind if I would rather get some much-needed sleep instead.

The First Dawn Light of 2024

In order to make sure I experienced the first dawn light of 2024, I had my boots laced up and was stomping up the hill before 7.30am on 1 January. Sunrise was just before 8.15am, and as the light starts to glow around an hour before that, I was just in time to see the moonlit blue turn into a muted orange as the sun started to peer over the hill.

This time I was on my own. Mine was the only car parked up when I arrived up at Cleeve Hill, and while did see a dog walker or two on paths in the distance as I made my way over the common towards the famous windswept tree, it really was quiet and peaceful. It was so much calmer up there than it was on New Year’s Eve, and I thoroughly enjoyed being outside in the fresh air, soaking up the early morning vitamin D, and allowing my mind to wander and enjoy the moment. Oh, and it was the most glorious place to enjoy my first cup of tea of the year, too.

We were fortunate with the weather here. New Year’s Day morning was really beautiful, the almost-clear skies made for a pleasant change (don’t worry, it was chucking it down by lunchtime). With that, the light was soft and the views over to the east looked warm and inviting.

Taking Photos

By the time I left the hill at 8.30am or so, the common was bordering on bustling with other people – more dog walkers, runners, families – all getting out to enjoy their first One Hour Outside of the year. It was really great to see so many people out and about first thing in the morning, although I admit I was very happy to have had the place nearly to myself an hour earlier.

Honestly, getting outside to witness sunset and sunrise on the old and new really is the perfect New Year tradition. And it should go without saying, but you can do this – and it can mean something to you – any day of the year.

As you can see dotted through this post, I took a few photos on my phone, and while they’re not bad, they don’t really do the beauty of the morning justice. My husband and I have been playing with our old Nikon D3100 this week, which has taken a back seat to our point-and-shoot and phones in the last two or three years.

We’ve enjoyed the convenience of shooting on our phones, and while they do capture some great images, they don’t always allow you to portray the scene or interpret the memory as we want to. I would like to think I’ll be carrying the SLR a lot more in 2024, let’s see if I get back into the habit of that.  

Cooking with Harrison

I was super chuffed to receive a copy of Harrison Ward’s Cook Out from my sister for Christmas. Also known as Fell Foodie, Harrison is one of my fellow Ordnance Survey Champions and an absolutely lovely soul, and this is his recently published outdoors-focused cook book.

Cook Out includes some delicious-looking recipes, along with information about cooking outside. The recipes have all been consciously developed and designed for single burners and camp stoves.

I really can’t wait to give the recipes a try. I’ve been through and added little sticky markers on the pages that first piqued my interest, and that feel within my current cookery skillset (which can be seen in my review of my cast iron skillet). I’ll be testing a few out in the comfort of my (newly reorganised) kitchen in the coming weeks – I’m sure my induction hob will work just fine for some testing before I up my cooking game on my next camp, or when I next have my fire bowl out in the garden.

There’s also a chapter of adventure snacks at the back of the book, which look perfect for putting into the new (nice and large) snack bag my friend Sarah got me for Christmas on my next day hike.

If you fancy treating yourself to a new cook book, you can get a copy of Cook Out on the Vertebrate Publishing website (also available on Amazon and from Waterstones). I’ll be sure to let you know how the recipe trials go!

That’s Entertainment

Short Film: Earthside

I find myself watching adventure films of all kinds on YouTube, and had this one appear on my YouTube home page this weekend, which is well worth 30-minutes of your time if you’ve not seen it before.

The film starts with Hilaree Nelson, a phenomenal mountain athlete, saying the following about risk taking: “You have to take risks if you want to learn anything about yourself, you have to take risks if you want to expand the self-imposed walls we put around ourselves.”

Sadly, Hilaree sadly passed away in an avalanche on Manaslu in the Himalayas not too long after the featured expedition took place, which makes the film – which focuses on the respect the four ladies had in each other’s skills – even more poignant.

See You Next Time…

Right, I’m going to get this weekly blog episode read through and posted now while my going-back-to-work bath is running (it’s Monday evening as I write this so I can schedule it ready for your reading pleasure early Tuesday morning).

As I said right at the top of this post, the last week has absolutely flown by, it doesn’t feel like I’ve had a whole week off, and I could really do with some more time to do my own thing. Hey ho, that’s not how this goes, so it’s back to the day job for me, and a spot of looking forward to my next holiday!

So let me leave this episode by wishing you a very (very) happy New Year. If doesn’t matter if you observed your own New Year’s Eve and Day tradition or not, if you are heading straight back to work on 2 January or have a bit more time off to go, if you’ve set yourself some fanciful goals or you’re gently going dipping your toe into things without any expectations. Here’s to a splendid 2024, throughout which we each spend plenty of time outside, have heaps of fun experiences that provide lasting memories, and enjoy all the love and laughter we need.

See you next week for another weekly blog episode.

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