Since we met, Thirza and I have loved walking and have wanted to find more ways to explore not just the wider world but also our local, more immediate, surroundings. We want to feel more connected both physically and mentally to our environment; to appreciate it not just in the warmth of the sun for a few hours but at all times of the day and of the year and whatever the weather.
Thirza in the Forest of Dean
We are already, I would like to think, seasoned flaneurs. In this age of fitness tracking we often head out in the evening to get our step count up and we have always enjoyed the experience of discovering what seem like hidden corners of the otherwise familiar local landscape. Even the streets on your own doorstep can seem very different at night.
Thirza was, previously a teacher and a passionate advocate of outdoor play. She understands the need to connect from an early age with the environment both for our own happiness and fulfilment but also to inculcate an appreciation of our close interdependence on the natural world. Early exposure to the outdoors in all it's muddy, wet and smelly glory is also crucial to our physical and mental wellbeing. If we get dirty we can get clean, if wet we can get dry; these are both, like so many other things in life transitory and serve very often to heighten the pleasure of for instance seeing a rainbow, the sun dappling a forest path, a hot shower, a cold beer or a bowl full of roast potatoes. Being wet and muddy can also be pleasures in their own right too of course!
In the past few years we have also begun slowly to push our own boundaries a little, staying in more basic accommodation with fewer facilities; a little closer to nature. But this has only been a token gesture and we'd really like to push ourselves further. This year our plan is to learn some survival skills - building shelters, making fire, foraging and sleeping outside.
This Christmas, Thirza pushed us both further down this road by getting me Microadventures by Alastair Humphreys which is a brilliant and inspiring read. An adventure seems like a daunting and significant undertaking - trekking across deserts, sailing over oceans; it requires time, money, planning, stamina and courage. Microadventures by contrast are achievable - they are short, cheap and can be easy. They may still require some stamina and courage but not lots of time. They may later lead to "proper" adventures but that really is not the point; what they will do is make life interesting and, I believe, give perspective and scale in these ever faster paced times.
Beginning in January we will be sharing a different microadventure each month so check back in to see how we get on along with diversions about photography, astronomy, useful kit, whittling sticks, hats, gloves and socks, on being cold and hungry but also on the exhilaration and excitement of adventuring.
Tim & Thirza
A flaneur is a 19th Century French figure - one who strolls the streets on a leisurely and serendipitous journey of discovery for small treasures and hidden gems. A flaneur appreciates the otherwise mundane, hidden patterns, snatches of conversation and fleeting glimpses of urban life and like a detective stitches together a narrative, creates significance from the minutiae they glimpse. While typically seen as male, Laura Ekin in the Guardian also rightly claims the role for women - A tribute to female flâneurs: the women who reclaimed our city streets The role of flaneur has also hitherto been seen as something of a rich man's (or woman's) pastime - a fancy of the idle diletante but what microadventures make so wonderfully plain is that we can all be flaneurs, we can all take a few minutes to stroll, to marvel at our surroundings and to give flight to our imaginations as we open our senses to the simple, everyday delights on our doorsteps.
Forest Schools seek to teach people of all ages important life skills, problem solving and to instil emotional intelligence by guided play in a woodland setting.
Microadventures are about doing something challenging but realistic. A microadventure can be anything from circumnavigating your home to jumping on a train to following a river from its source. It can be wonderfully spontaneous and take just an evening or more planned and take a weekend and they shouldn't need lots of kit and training just enthusiasm, a sense of wonder and common-sense. Alastair Humphrey's website offers loads of advice, suggestions and useful ideas. As Alastair says so well "adventure is a state of mind!" Have a look at this video where Alastair explains microadventures and his philosophy.
The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996 to counteract the increasingly hectic and short-term nature of living we are subject to these days. It seeks to encourage much longer term perspectives not just for our lives but for those of our children and grandchildren and generations to come. Only this longer view of time can focus our minds on safe-guarding this planet and its precious resources on resisting increasing unsustainable consumerism and the psychologically harmful rush to fill our lives with distractions and deadlines. Reconnecting with the natural world is an important part of this.
