By: Blonde Two
You Blondees and Blondettes already know (because I told you yesterday) that Blonde One, Plus One and I went to hear a talk by Tristan Gooley (The Natural Navigator) on Tuesday night.
We all came away from the talk eager to learn more and try out some of the things that we had learnt. I think, from our conversations since, that we have proved Blonde-Learning to be a different species entirely to normal learning … we definitely need to read our new books on the subject, but here is a snippet of what we did pick up (whilst not being over-competitive with our sweepstake!)
1) When the setting sun isn’t round, it doesn’t mean that the world is about to end. It means something else really significant!
2) Stinging nettles don’t just pop up. They have brains and like being around people!
3) Trees are not symmetrical. Just as well we don’t do our own illustrations for our books because we thought that they were!
4) Tree are clever enough to grow leaves for the sunshine and leaves for the shade. Imagine if we could grow skin in two types!
5) Roots are like guy ropes and grow more on the windward side of the tree. You don’t have to go round and tighten them up every night!
6) Aircraft trails aren’t random because aircraft don’t fly in random patterns. This is a good thing!
7) Tall clouds are unstable and water clouds look like cauliflowers. Probably not good with cheese sauce!
8) A rainbow at night is a Blonde’s delight, a rainbow in the morning is a Blonde’s warning.
9) Lichens particularly like dog wee. Blondes don’t!
10) Tall grasses have a short memory, short ones have long ones. Or maybe the other way round.
Please don’t go out onto Dartmoor and try to navigate using our instructions; as you can see, we have a lot to learn. You would be much better off buying one of Tristan’s books (available from the Dartmoor National Park visitor centres) or reading some of the fascinating info on his website: http://www.naturalnavigator.com/
And no, this one isn’t another sponsored blog post, we just thought it was all rather cool!
I particularly want to join you when you go out at night to look for rainbows – are there any tickets left?
I will check! It will be a long and arduous expedition! x
this ‘natural navigation’ sounds distinctly like the lore we learned from Scouting for Boys, Horace Kephart and other tracts of ancient wisdom (and whilst working for our Navigators badge)!
Amazing how often these days one finds people making a name and a living from stuff that used to be basic common knowledge, as if they were the first time discoverers!
Grandmothers’ teeth territory?