What I’ve been reading this week, 28 March 2020

We live in a time of grey areas, so there’s a lot of overlap between the categories in this week’s list of links.

Environment and nature

Five Pied Wagtail Facts and a Poem – Lucy Wallace writes about the pied wagtail.

Outdoors

Magic moments in our wintry mountains – mountain hope from Before by Ben Dolphin.

My recommended Outdoors YouTube channels – I don’t spend much time on YouTube these days, but this is a great short list of channels with some fantastic videos.

Taking the Easier Route – a UKH guide to the Cuillin Ridge for mere mortals.

A spring equinox walk in the woods, thoughts on a dark time – Chris Townsend finds solace in the natural world.

Coronavirus

That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief – ‘There is something powerful about naming this as grief. It helps us feel what’s inside of us.’

How to Support the Outdoor Industry During COVID-19 – Natalie Berry lists a few ways we can all help.

Coronavirus – Outdoor Instructors Feel the Pinch – this is an excellent piece by Richard Prideaux about a corner of the economy that is going to be hit very hard by the pandemic.

Postponing a thru hike isn’t that easy! – most of us can agree that postponing your long-distance hike is the right thing to do at the moment, but as Cam explains here, it isn’t necessarily as simple as cancelling a holiday. People are making harder choices than you might imagine.

The Quitter – Ash Routen shares a poem by Robert Service.

The ugliness of coronavirus shaming – ‘White feathers are unlikely to help us fumble our way through the dark.’

Mind games – this is a great piece by Liz Jones on the less visible hardships of our current time. ‘Sometimes I drop my guard and let my mind run, extrapolating outcomes from the information I have at my disposal. Before too long, though, it becomes necessary to stop.’

Photography

Arisaig March 2020 – some lovely images here from Christopher Swan.

Miscellaneous

The best distance learning is reading a book – ‘Crack open a book and you can not only learn from someone who’s several thousand miles away, you can learn from someone who’s several thousand years away.’

We are already surviving – interesting thoughts from Hazel Bird. ‘So, when a huge shock hits, we may worry about how we will survive, but in a sense we are already surviving. We might have to shift our trajectory, but we are already in motion.’

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