The Outdoor Traditionalist

I was sat around a campfire on a Woodlife Trails wild camp (which they run for the National Trust) when Pablo leaned over to me and asked if I'd ;like to help out on future courses as a course assistant. Now this job also attracts alternative titles such as 'marigold' and 'camp bitch' and 'fire fuel management operative' amongst others.

So what's in a name? When I started this blog I initially titled it Bushcraft and Nature after a social group I started (with the same title) on the Escouts  forum because whilst nature is of course very much part of bushcrafting (it's there to see and utilise after all) I wanted to encourage Scouters with little bushcrafty knowledge to post stuff like seeing the first swallows and martins, asking for flower ID and the like...

As I'd launched it I invested a lot of time putting 'how to' articles and the like on there to generate interest but it got to the stage were I was pretty much the only one posting stuff on it and almost considered it my blog! This led to the light bulb moment when I decided to start my own blog instead of ploughing a lone furrow.

I recall Simon Moorhouse who runs Wood Sage telling me that Mike Rushton from Tamarack doesn't use he term bushcraft if he does any outdoor teaching because it's a rather overused phrase and that resonated with me as I too  have often thought that the word bushcraft is overused and is a catch all phrase for just about anything which of course bushcraft can be, but I've thought of a new title that I prefer so I have re-titled the blog ‘The outdoor traditionalist’. I don't usually fish, shoot, canoe and oh loads of stuff, but I can go in to the countryside and maximise a walk with photos, ID, plant usage practice and so on.

So that's why I made the Woodlife alternative names reference at the start because I guess outdoor traditionalist is another way of saying bushcraft but I feel that perhaps I can fit outdoor traditionalism into bushcraft rather than the other way around. Enjoying the outdoors traditionally but reserving the right to use the phrase bushcraft when it suits!