Do Something Guide to the great outdoors Whether you’ve got an hour to spare or a weekend, it’s time to get outside and make the most of spring ILLUSTRATIONS An hour A day A night A weekend Ben Lamb SET DESIGN & Cloud spotting, Mountain Moon walking, Island hopping, PHOTOGRAPHY foraging, fire- climbing, ‘Close bat watching, waterfalling, Kyle Bean and lighting and a eyes, point, go’ and camping and nature writing Aaron Tilley microadventure the end of the line seeing in the dark and knife carving An hour These mini adventures are perfect for busy lives – add a new experience to your daily routine Cloud spotting Lunchtime microadventure How to Whether you’re in the office or your Rather than eating last night’s leftovers, use build a fire garden, learn to predict the weather your lunchbreak to set out into the unknown Cook your foraged lunch in A lunchbreak is the perfect time to do something the open air different, says the adventurer Alastair Humphreys. “Microadventures take away the usual obstacles, such as expense and time, and suggest a way of Cumulus enjoying the outside world within the limitations Detached clumps of cloud composed of water of our home and work life.” droplets that form low and indicate fair The key is to rethink how we view the seem­ weather. Have flat bases and heaped tops, and ingly ordinary world around us. We imagine a walk look a dazzling white in the sunshine or adventure has to happen in beautiful rolling countryside – and of course, it’s often hard to find the time to get out there. But even in the middle Find your wood of towns and cities there are canals, parks, historic Divide into three buildings, and plenty of wildlife. Rather than heaps: matchstick, wasting a precious hour eating a sandwich at your thick as a finger, Altocumulus desk, or sitting down in front of another episode of bigger than a wrist Appears as rolls of cloud, or layered patches Doctors, strike out into your local neighbourhood in the mid-level region. Commonly found and treat it like a wild landscape. Observe the between warm and cold fronts, so can precede bad weather seasons – are the plants and trees flowering or in leaf? Look up at the sky, and use our guide to identify the clouds. With a bit of practice you will be able to predict what the weather will do next. Or try a commuter microadventure by taking a Share your photos Find your tinder different route to the station. Catch a bus instead Have you spotted Use natural: eg birch a cloud that looked Cirrus of a tube, walk down parallel streets. Look at your bark, dry grass; like something else? Detached, wispy, clouds, formed of ice routine, and force yourself to break it, even if it’s or man-made: cotton We’d love to see it crystals. Wavy appearance is caused by wind just once a week • wool or paper theguardian.com/ movement. Can indicate a change in the Alastair’s adventures are at alastairhumphreys.com witness weather. Also known as mares’ tails Becky Barnicoat Prepare a fire space Cirrocumulus Clear a 2m spot, place High patches of cloudlets made up of ice a raft of dry sticks Win a cloud crystals which never cast self-shadows. The challenge as a barrier between Usually seen after rain, indicating ground and fire guide! improving weather Set out for the horizon We have 10 of the • Look out of an upstairs window and Cloud Appreciation KIT Society’s Cloud choose a point on the horizon - a church Selectors to give • Watch spire, a tree, a block of flats. away. Email • Camera • Attempt to reach your destination do.something@ • Sense of without using a map – don’t worry if you theguardian.com direction don’t reach it, that’s half the fun. Cumulonimbus Start your fire Known as thunderclouds, have low dark • Use your phone, or a camera, to take Light tinder, add wood bases and extend many miles up into the pictures every 10 minutes, to focus your slowly (thin first). Add atmosphere. Produce brief, heavy downpours, eye on unexpected detail. Vaseline to tinder to and sometimes lead to hail and lightning encourage the flame Five wild ingredients What to forage Alexanders Fennel Elder Lime (linden) Wild plum for from now Hedges, waste ground Trading estates Neglected areas Avenues, parks Hedges, carparks until the end of All parts edible Leaves and seeds Heads, cooked berries Young leaves Ripe fruit the summer Harvest: March – May May – Nov June – July June – July August – October Rich pickings The banks of canals are excellent Stinging foraging spots nettle pesto Jon’s simple recipe Ingredients 25g nettle tops 2 cloves garlic 25g grana padano 200 cheese (crumbled) species 25g ground of edible plants almonds growing wild in 8 tbsp olive oil major British cities Black pepper SOURCE: Forage London How to make it contamination by “dog truffles”, as you need and don’t uproot it – as well 1. Wash nettle Tyler puts it. I don’t let this put me as spoiling it for others, this is illegal. tops, remove any off as he grabs a handful of sea beet Nettles lose their sting when crushed, old or discoloured Forage for – a relative of beetroot – from a spot but wear gloves to pick them. leaves and shake a great dane could probably reach. As we stop for an al fresco lunch, off excess water. your lunch Before I know it I am munching away, it becomes clear that like any kind of without so much as a rinse. cooking, it’s not what you have but 2. In a food So long, supermarket bags of Tyler talks excitedly of fig trees and what you do with it. Luckily for me, processor, blend salad and over-priced herbs, wild strawberry bushes that people Tyler is a superb cook. Mary Poppins­ together garlic, pass, oblivious. If someone’s fruit tree style, he pulls out a camping stove, almonds and 3 tbsp it’s easy to find and pick your is hanging over a public path he will pans and utensils, and the canalside of the oil to form a own, even in the city ask them if he can pick from it. Mostly wall is transformed into a kitchen. paste. Add cheese, they say yes. Using leaves from our walk nettle tops, the WORDS Sarah Phillips It turns out that seemingly everyday (nettles, cow parsley, fennel), plus a rest of the oil and Ipswich doesn’t seem the most likely weeds are actually quite flavoursome. few foraged goodies from his store combine to form location for a spot of urban foraging, “Someone told me it tastes like green,” cupboard, Tyler rustles up a spring the pesto. yet my prejudice proves how little I Tyler laughs as we munch on mallow, herb and jelly­ear fungus sesame know about the delicacies available and this is true of most of the delights pancake, fettuccine with nettle pesto 3. Transfer it into in public places for free. I’m here for we sample along the Alderman canal. (tangier than basil) and St George’s a bowl and season a lunchtime lesson from Jon Tyler, That blackthorn blossom looks so good mushroom, followed by blackberry with black pepper. who has been running edible tours for you could eat it – and we do. oaties. This is all washed down with Add more oil if the 20 years. Within minutes, he is on his When foraging, you need to some boozy beech­leaf noyau, a recipe mixture is too stiff. knees pulling at what look suspiciously proceed with caution. Tyler advises from Richard Mabey’s Food for Free. like weeds. In fact it is wild rocket. So that plants are safer to start with than As confused passersby head off for Your pesto will long, horrible plastic bags of the stuff – mushrooms, especially from March a substandard sandwich, I am suitably keep for up to a why not pick it yourself? onwards when their flowers give impressed and inspired • week in the fridge Walking along the River Orwell, crucial clues as to what they are. “If To go on one of Jon Tyler’s tours visit if covered with the first rule of foraging becomes you’re not sure about it you won’t wildforwoods.co.uk or look out for some extra oil. Photograph: Graeme Robertson Graeme Photograph: apparent: don’t pick too low and risk enjoy it,” he says. Only pick as much as events at foodsafari.co.uk A day If you’ve only got 24 hours, try our alternative travel ideas and end up somewhere new and unexpected Bottom’s up Rhik’s mission was ‘Close eyes, to find his way to Sound Bottom in point, go’ Wiltshire There are so many places you could go to for the day, but how do you decide on your destination? Leave it up to fate WORDS Rhik Samadder I’m standing in WHSmith at London Paddington holding an A­Z, with my eyes closed. I am about to stick my finger somewhere on a map at random and attempt to get there. The idea of “Close eyes, point, go” is that having an adventure doesn’t need to be expensive, or take months of planning. 11,073 It can start now. miles I open my eyes. My finger is pointing of coastline at a dry riverbed at the bottom of around the UK a copse in Wiltshire, called Sound (excluding islands) Bottom. It sounds like a place chosen SOURCE: Ordnance Survey for comic value, but the North Wessex Downs page of the A­Z doesn’t have a non­silly name on it.