Jon Vernon

Giving this a little boost... still tickets available and weather is looking absolutely perfect for an evening dip on Saturday.

#Dartmoor

bookwhen.com/moretonpool/...

Wide open and empty moorland landscape, with the incongruous and artificial lines of a dense commercial forestry plantation on the far ridge.

I don't like describing any part of the moor as "wild" - it's far from that and everything you see here has been shaped by human hands to some extent (for good or bad)- but these thresholds between the "managed" and "unmanaged" bits of the moor are what I find most interesting I think...

Cheers!

An old drystone wall winding into the distance along a Dartmoor ridge towards a distant tor.

A stile marking a crossing point in the wall. Rock outcrop of a tor just visible beyond.

The upper valley of the East Dart - wide open and empty Dartmoor landscape. Multiple faint paths lead off over the moor. Waterfalls just visible to the right.

A herd of Belted Galloway cattle make their way across a grassy ridge under a huge looking sky.

Crossing a newtake wall on Dartmoor always feels like passing a threshold... they separate the "improved" inbye fields of the lower valleys from the bits of the moor which you were warned about, where lines on the ground don't line up with the map, and paths peter out into the tussocky nothingness.

Have just had a sneaky peek at the initial layouts for the Flow zine which @simonblackbourn.net is busy working on and it's looking FABULOUS.

Going to be our best and most varied zine yet, I think...

Oh that will not be a problem

Needed a bit of encouragement as although he loves the water, as a rule he will normally only enter it in a "work" capacity (fetching ball / stick).

It really was - needed it after spending most of the day decorating our bathroom...

Basically half otter...

Glassy ripples on a pool in a peaty Dartmoor river.

My hand underwater in the peat rich water. Reflection of the dog watching from the bank.

Lucas the dog enjoying a dip.

Lucas watching from the bank - his reflection in the still water below.

Lovely dip in the peat pools below Sandy Hole Pass this afternoon. Water so rich and dark it was like swimming in Guinness.

Got to be - today was the worst. It looked like the rocks were alive!

I clearly missed the memo that it was flying ant day on Dartmoor today.

The east Dart valley was absolutely seething with them.

'tis a terrible place.

Pattern of fields & farm buildings in snow.

Pattern of shadows on sand dunes at sunset, with marram grass.

From the archive...

Images taken in Aberdeenshire in 2015, commissioned by VisitScotland.

A black and white photograph of a horse standing in a landscape - the weather is foreboding with dark clouds but there is a chink of light shining in the distance - the horse stands peacefully by himself in the centre of the image.

A black and white photography of a grey horse - the landscape is split across the middle - the bottom half is the grass (dark grey) with the horse eating to the left. The sky is laden with fog and is white.

A photograph of a black fell pony on the fell near to where I live The image is dark - darker bottom half with a lighter, but foggy skyline - the black pony is in the middle of the image standing alone and in silhouette.

A black and white photography - this time lighter shades of grey. The pony is dapple grey and is rubbing his head against his front leg - it looks as if he is bowing majestically. The foreground is dark grey (grass) with a foggy sky - the pony is to the right of the image.

Horse series.

A lot of the portraits of the horses are close up but I also tried to evoke a sense of where they live too.

There is a description in the Alt text.

a close up of a person 's face with the words " the horror " written below it Alt: a close up of Marlon Brando's Kurtz from Apocalypse with the words " the horror " written below it

Had to go to Trago, lads...

Well done!

I'm not either really but the overgrowth is crazy right now - my arms are cut to ribbons.

Also <whispers> the local trails are a bit TOO dry... like riding on marbles in places.

#VeryBitishMountainBikeProblems

Over the handlebar view of a very overgrown singletrack trail. Head high bracken both sides. Trail is narrower than my bars.

I will deny this in 6 months time but truthfully by this point in the summer I'm craving the first hard frost of winter...

There's a guy round here in his 70s who rides everywhere on a 42:18 fixie and does some serious mileage. The guys a machine.

It's similarly steep here - it's really a case of finding a gear ratio that you're comfortable with - I run 32:16 on 26" or 32:18 on 29" here which are typically off road ratios but work for steeper road riding too - I can get up most hills with a bit of grunt as long as I have a decent run up.

We all love to moan about 6 Music over here from time to time but honestly we're lucky to have it... I could easily imagine Mary-Anne Hobbs or Iggy spinning some Skinny Puppy on their shows.

That said for all the brilliant stuff played today, it's reminded me there was lot of-bilge in the 90s too.

a man in a mask is holding glow sticks in his hand ALT: a man in a mask is holding glow sticks in his hand

BBC 6 Music is doing a 1990s Rave Forever day today... I'll admit to having had a few such moments in the course of the day so far...

FSOL's Papua New Guinea just came on the wireless and I *may* be having a moment....

You must be mad… A lot of people think I must be crazy for even considering riding a singlespeed bike on Dartmoor. Firstly, a caveat – these days I’m a fairweather singlespeeder. I don’t ride sing…

Been riding singlespeed a lot lately, musing about why I enjoy it so much, and remembered that I wrote this.... 11 years ago 🤯.

Still have this bike. Still my favourite, and the one which is most likely to roll out of the garage.

I'm basically a Luddite.

onlyindevon.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/y...

Even a stopped clock etc...

Whilst we are on the subject of photo books... thanks again to everyone who contributed work for our new Flow zine.

Final image selection and layout is underway and we are still hoping to go to print at the end of the month.

We'll be putting up a link for pre-orders soon - watch this space!

From this late morning's walk.

With sincerest apologies to @joecharrington.bsky.social for how long it took me to actually get this written up, this was a really fascinating feature to work on for the @dartmoorcollective.org website.

Make sure you watch the film too...