** viewer discretion advised on some of the photographs herein
I failed to find anyone to convert the 14000 words and 100+ photos of the review of my rangering in 2025 (‘A Year On The Moors’), so it has had an edit of the words but will have to stay as a web based article. Thanks for the feedback … which was mostly that it was too long. Hmmffff.
In the aformentioned article, 2025 got weird in February. In 2026 it got weird on January.
A few examples …
3rd.
A report from a walker that they had found some bin bags on Big Moor. After a bit of W3W shenanigans and assistance from a four legged detective the bags were located. There were 3. Each contained a dead female dog that had (probably) been killed after their ability to continually produce puppies (probably) for the illegal dog fighting industry had ended. The matter is with Derbyshire Police.
vividly recollect walking away from that one wondering what i would have done if (in the very very slim chance) i had seen the ‘owner’ of these dogs dumping their bodies.
21st
A phone call telling me there are two bags on Big Moor. For some reason the person didn’t want to look inside the bags, nor did they want to walk to the nearby ranger base to report them. Later that day two colleagues examined the bags in situ. They held a large quantity of shamanic ritual gear including books of spells, a ouija board, ‘herbs’ and a fairly large kitchen knife.
Our sensible interpretation of the contents is that some (young ?) people have been told to get rid of this equipment / their hobby and they have dumped the kit. The weather was grim either side of the 21st. Hopefully it’s nothing more sinister.
26th
The great car mystery of 2025-2026 ended. I’ve covered it before but i’ll summarise the diary of events …
7 Nov 2025 – white LR Discovery is parked at Lady Cannings layby
13 Nov – local police speak (face to face) with the owner and advise them that the car is likely to be stolen / torched if left in situ.
8 Jan 2026 – second contact with the owner by the local police
8/9 Jan – vehicle leaves the layby
24 Jan – owners pop in to the Norfolk Arms after going to Lady Cannings to collect their car and it not being there
approx 26 Jan – reported stolen to DVLA with a ‘last seen’ date of 1 Jan 2025
Elsewhere in the month i hit a deer with a car i had bought 3 days earlier. Police shot the deer.
Someone subsequently hit the car i was selling to buy the newer car.
Put an 8’’ scar on my scalp after headbutting a dwarf tree covered in thorns.
Roll on February …