Author Archives: tpltravelled

…. I don’t know why the radio and antennae together are the same height as Lego Ranger. That would be awkward out ont’ moors. I help out on a small (36km2) patch of moorland straddling Sheffield and the Peak. Mostly evenings and at night. 99% of it is lovely chats with lovely people, be theyContinue reading “Half Rice Half Chips”

Care to hazard a guess at what the % increase is in wildfires in 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. Yup, 717%* 564 fires since January 1st this year.  *Figure from the National Fire Chiefs Council I can tell you that the majority of people using a BBQ or having a campfire inContinue reading “717%”

1 and 2 are from Tuesday morning. 3 and 4 are from last night. 5 is from dawn today.  People from near and far (including Cambridgeshire, Birmingham, and Scunthorpe over recent days) lighting fires and barbecues in woodland and on moorland hereabouts. Our thanks to Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service for their swift response thisContinue reading “Keeping The Home Fires Burning …”

It was not very long in to Saturday morning. It was the small hours. Maybe it was cold ? Saturday hadn’t grown very large. It was a tiny bit after midnight … etc etc … … when a couple of countryside rangers were finally heading home after extinguishing 7 fires / barbecues and removing theContinue reading “Hot Stuff”

‘Twas the night after Springwatch left and all was …. not quiet at all. Sometimes you can sense how a Friday night as a volunteer patrol ranger is going to go before you start. A sort of ‘feeling in your water’ as it were … two of the three of us had the same premonitionContinue reading “A feeling in me water”

A day out … Starting from the railway station in Sheffield which has an otter in a case chewing its own foot We caught the train through the Peak District via Manchester to Liverpool with Ed from Buffalo Systems. We were off to OTS. A walk through the city from the Lime Street Station ledContinue reading “OTS”

In 1987 i wrote a letter to a man called Hamish at an address in Sheffield asking if he could send me a brochure about something called ‘Buffalo Clothing’ that he had invented.  A while later an A5 envelope arrived and in it was a folded piece of A4 card with an ink stamp ofContinue reading “My Letter To Hamish”

The article about fly-tipping and ‘wild’ camping in the Keswick Reminder by Lucy Edwards that i mentioned the other day is published in full on the Cumbria Crack website here Here we are in the year 2025 with United Utilities funding the ‘secret security task force’ to protect nature with one hand whilst flooding WindermereContinue reading “Brownwashing”

Escape. The Youth is instructing on Windermere now so a planlet was hatched for a meet up at @skiddawhouseyouthhostel. My first visit of the year and his first in maybe a decade. Doesn’t it fly. A plod along Glenderaterra. A peregrine. Scrabble. A beer. Suggesting to fellow guests that closing the door on the woodburnerContinue reading “Home From Home”

An article in The Guardian about the deployment of ‘Australian style’ wildfire warning signs in the Peak District and Pennines. Permission to have an opinion ? 1 For the lay-person it’s difficult to interpret and the sign sited at Owler Bar also represents a potential driving risk (reading it whilst going round a weirdly shapedContinue reading “It’s A Sign ….”