It’s 5.30am. Pitch dark outside my shed windows. Black coffee steaming beside me. My favourite time of day. Yesterday evening I did not need to switch on my headtorch right at the start of my run – lighter evenings are on the way. This realisation makes me happy every year.

I’m continuing my experiment of posting links from the archives down at the bottom in case you’ve got time on your hands and an appetite for internet exploring.

Here are some things I’d like to share with you:

 Sad news: A mountain rescuer sustained spinal injuries when called out to help people camping in the Lake District in breach of lockdown. Here’s a link if you’d like to make a donation to help Chris.

️ A Single Map: My explorations of a single map have involved snow and coppicing recently.

️ Coffee outside: I’ve begun a small collaboration with the fabulous artist Anna Brones. Our first offering: urging you to take your coffee outside today.
(Speaking of coffee: thank you so much for buying me 1000 cups of coffee! I’m buzzing with your generosity. Thank y’all.)

 Wanderlust: Travel (virtually) around your favourite cities of the world whilst listening to their local radio stations. (via the SwissMiss newsletter.) If you like this, you’ll find this compendium of local radio stations across the world utterly beguiling. (I’m listening to a station in Mbeya, Tanzania as I write this.)

 A mile an hour: a marathon idea perfect for lockdown. Or you could try running 1km today, 2km tomorrow, and so on for a month. Here is a new nice film about Sean Conway doing this for a month.

? An important essay about the challenges of being Black in the outdoors.

 Begin again: A fabulous article about how to learn, and how to be a beginner again.

✂️ And a few snippets for you…

✂️ Backyard Nature is inspiring families to tackle the nature crisis by providing the tools to help plants and animals thrive on their patch of nature – whether they live in the heart of a city or the countryside.

✂️ Nerdy chat about outdoor gear design.

✂️ Gorgeous photography from Siberia.

✂️ This kettlebell app has been my saviour while the gyms are closed. Simple and effective. Whoever you are, buy one kettlebell and use it. It will make you more strong, lean, flexible, and healthy. (Apple, Android.)

Can I help you? Let me know if you have a relevant project that my readers would appreciate. This week we have… 

 Thanks for reading. As Austin Kleon says, “This newsletter is free, but not cheap.” To show your support, forward it to someone who’d like it, listen to one of my six audiobooks, or subscribe to my (free) podcast.

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It’s now 6.40am. There’s a blue blush of daylight creeping into the pre-dawn sky. Time for kettlebells then to put the kettle on…

I hope you have a great day,

Alastair