An Introduction

"[Bilbo] often used to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep and every path was its tributary. 'It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.'"
-- J R R Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Hi,

I'm Paul. I describe myself as a rambler and an amateur photographer. In other contexts, I also describe myself as a software engineer, an open source enthusiast, a whisky/craft beer appreciator and general nerd. I live in the UK, currently in Leeds, previously Nottingham and Loughborough. My pronouns are he/him.

I spend a lot of time online and working at a computer. This means a few things:

1. I'm familiar with the phrase "go touch grass"
2. I need to go touch some fucking grass
3. I am frankly shocked that the domain touchinggrass.co.uk was available

With a change coming up in my work, I'm about to have more opportunity than I've had in at least a decade to get out and explore. I also have a backlog of walks I've done, photos I've taken and things I've thought about that I would like to share. So this is the perfect time to start a new blog.

Writing about walks I've done and sharing photos of what I've seen inspires me to get out more. I don't want to ever do things just "for the 'gram", but there is something human about wanting to share our experiences. Organising my thoughts into words and editing photos helps to set an experience in my mind so I remember it in the future. I also hope that it will inspire others, not just to go touch grass themselves, but also to care about our environment, our wildlife and our access to the land.

It would be irresponsible to try to isolate my enjoyment of our countryside from my concerns about the way it is managed and the risks it faces. I want to do more than just write a bland, lifeless and apolitical series of posts. I want to be my authentic self here, and that means including my secular humanism, my left wing politics, my desire for a more inclusive world and my neurodivergence. I won't be talking about politics in every post, but where I feel it is appropriate I will be sharing my views and occasionally promoting organisations that I support.

So, my adventures may be a little less dangerous and world-changing than Frodo's, but I hope that you will enjoy sharing them!