After moving in to a smaller flat last year, I quickly realised that I didn’t have the space for two of my Ikea Ivar shelving units. One was sold locally and, although I managed to squeeze the other in to the bathroom cupboard space, I soon decided that it was excessively deep and warranted downsizing. With that second Ivar unit sold, I had the funds available to purchase something more compact; again from Ikea, I went for the Hejne shelving unit.
Tag: hiking
Making an OS Map Box
Since 2012, my collection of Ordnance Survey maps has steadily grown. They’d always lived within an unfashionable cardboard box, before I recently made an alternative solution from 12mm thick birch plywood.
This is a project that I completed in February of this year, although the official start date leaps back to the beginning of 2017, when I ‘sourced’ the materials from the off-cuts pile at the company I used to work for.
Cranborne Chase Weekend
As quickly as this past weekend came and went, I now find that almost three whole days have passed since I arrived home.
Cranborne Chase – for those who don’t know (just as I didn’t) – is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in North Dorset, very close to the border with Wiltshire. Salisbury lies to the north with the New Forest and Hampshire to the east.
This was a camping and walking weekend organised by two members of Brunel Walking Group and my second of the year.
Olly Outdoors
It’s been too long since I last posted here and I apologise for that.
A private e-mail received this week from a long-time reader and subscriber has prompted me to make a more notable announcement of the fact that I now have a second blog, dedicated to my walking and hiking adventures.
This was something I was hesitating over the other month and hence, why these pages have been so… Stale? I do intend to keep blogging about woodwork, DIY, baking and the rest, here on Olly Writes. But right now, I haven’t had much of that going on (or, I’ve yet to finish many of the things already started).
Olly Outdoors
To further compliment Olly Outdoors, I have a second YouTube channel (please subscribe) and also a dedicated Facebook Page, which I’m using almost as a form of micro-blogging. I intend to do the same with my Olly Writes page.
Olly Outdoors:
WordPress
YouTube
Facebook
Olly Writes:
WordPress
YouTube
Facebook
As always, thanks for reading and for your patience!
Time for a New Blog? – March 2017
This is a thought that I’ve been carrying with me for several months now.
Since packing my workshop in to storage nearly three-years ago [Yikes! That long already?!], my interest in walking and hiking has grown to the point where it dominates a significant portion of my life, interests and mind. I’m the kind of person who struggles to balance multiple interests at once and can often plough ahead with one obsessively…
First, it was football. Growing a bit older and with college, next came woodworking. My passion for walking was already on the rise before vacating my last workshop but it’s clearly a front runner right now.
So, there’s a lot of content (eight-years worth, if I’m not mistaken) already on this blog. I’m not looking to ‘end’ these pages and certainly, I’d never delete them. But I have been thinking about a new space to dedicate my walking to.
What’s in my Backpack? (Winter Hiking – Osprey Manta AG 28)
How much and how many items do you carry in your backpack,
when preparing for a day of hiking?
I’ve seen other YouTubers release ‘What’s in my pack?’-style videos and have decided to create one of my own, centred around winter hill walks and hiking. I also thought this kind of upload might be good for my still-new-but-slowly-growing channel.
It’s also an opportunity to highlight a few features of the Osprey Manta AG 28 backpack that I purchased in June, without doing a run-of-the-mill review-style video.
Audio isn’t great and my camera is partly to blame (hoping to upgrade/replace that, later this year) and I perhaps made the mistake of trying to hide or disguise the camera noise with music… Some will like it; some won’t. In hindsight, I could’ve recorded the audio on my phone and worked through painfully synchronising it with the video footage. But for the weather outside, I could’ve also recorded it in a more appealing location than my own bedroom.
I hope that people find it interesting. Constructive feedback is always welcome. I also aim to release a similar video over the summer so that we (and I) can compare. I’ve also started to create my own thumbnail images to accompany my videos.
Disclaimer: I live in North Somerset and mostly walk ten-to-twelve miles at a time, during winter. Most conditions and landscapes, except for mountains. My arrangements may not suit everyone.
Link to my channel: Olly Outdoors
Thanks for watching and reading.
Wellow, Wellow
Sunday 15th January 2017
One day after an orienteering exercise at Ashton Court in Bristol, there was an off-the-book-but-on-Facebook walk organised that I was invited to join.
It would begin in the village of Wellow, a few miles south of Bath… You’re possibly already familiar with that name because I’d been pre-walking routes in the same area!
Kingscote and Nailsworth Walk
Sunday 8th January 2017
One day after a mist and mud experience on the Somerset Levels, I drove north for a walk in the Cotswolds with an urbanised beginning.
This route is available in Walk West Again; created by Geoff Mullett and free to download from this site.
