Buy yourself a pair of wet trousers – i.e. waterproof trousers you put on over your ordinary trousers, or shorts or whatever you are wearing, male or female – and you are all set to rewild i.e. immerse yourself into nature.
Getting wet trousers, going out in the dark, sitting still and quiet in the countryside, how to breathe underwater and a whole host of other ‘spells’ you can weave in the great outdoors to get yourself back to nature and enjoy the huge joys that await you there, are just a few of the 23 ways to rewild in Simon Barnes’ 2018 book, Rewild Yourself, which I have just caught up with on Kindle.
Written in a very simple, but charming and entertaining style, Rewild Yourself is a 23-point plan to start discovering nature as you have probably never done before. Not merely seeing birds but able to identify their shapes and songs. Not just walking aimlessly through the countryside but aware of the trees and tracks around you. Not just looking out at a blank sea but conscious of the life in and over the waves.
Each chapter in Simon Barnes’ rewilding plan is tagged to the idea of a spell – ones you can cast to help you slip into another world and see nature's glories on the inside. They might be spells taken from Harry Potter or the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, but all of them explore the magic of nature and how easy it is with these little tricks and strategies up your sleeve to rewild yourself – become more at one with the world of nature around you.
Simon Barnes is a former Chief Sports Writer for The Times and has published many books on birdwatching and other aspects of nature.
https://www.simonbarnesauthor.co.uk
Rewild Yourself is published by Simon and Shuster