LETTERS
Share your views, your experiences and your favourite photos tgo.ed@kelsey.co.uk
Postal address The Editor, The Great Outdoors, Kelsey Publishing Ltd, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent ME18 6AL. Please include a phone number and postal address.
Inspired by Dad
Nick Morrice shared photos of some old issues of The Great Outdoors, unearthed after his father’s passing.
Here, he and his siblings Jack and Natalie share a beautiful tribute to their dad...
In July 2022, we lost my dad Alan to cancer shortly before his 78th birthday.
When clearing out his house in Aberdeenshire this year, my siblings and I uncovered a stash of his treasured walking memorabilia including a few issues of The Great Outdoors from 1987 and 1988 [below right].
Dad was a nature lover, avid walker and professional artist all of his life.
His works in oil and watercolour often featured the many humble peaks, and the atmosphere of rural Aberdeenshire.
Having his artworks of the place we grew up is a rare privilege!
I now live in the NW of England, and my elder siblings in the SE of England – but these magazines, maps and photos instantly took us all back to him dragging us up and out into the hills as children, decades ago.
We remember many a day hike in all weathers, fuelled by a Thermos of chicken soup and beef paste rolls...
The Donside peaks of Bennachie and the more southerly Clachnaben were among his favourites, and the latter I have since wild camped upon – much to his surprise and bemusement – a year before he passed.
He never needed to take himself to the Alps or Atlas Mountains to find joy in the hills, and found just as much fulfilment in watching the seasons pass a handful of miles from his doorstep each year.
He gifted us a particular love of nature that now, as a parent myself, I hope to pass on as profoundly.
To pause and truly appreciate our wildernesses a handful of miles out of town is a lost art. Thank you, Dad, for that. We miss you.
The outdoors brings clarity
Reader Stuart Hodgson wrote to us after six contributors recalled their life-changing long walks in the June issue of TGO, describing why it struck a chord.
I do think that the outdoors can be life-changing; and, for me, it has been life-enhancing.
For a long time, the outdoors has contained so many positive aspects: the obvious ones like improved physical health, but also the mental health benefits.
I often hike with others so there are social benefits too and, being a photographer, the landscapes are so awe-inspiring and uplifting.
I guess time in the outdoors, unplugged from the increasingly busy world full of screens competing for your attention, gives you time and space to reflect – and make plans and
