Reading the weather
Most of what I know about weather I learned by getting it wrong. A ring around the moon, a wind that backs in the afternoon, swallows flying low: all of these mean something, but rarely as much as people claim.
What has proved reliable is the shape of the clouds over the hills before midday. If they are building upwards and their tops are sharp, I plan to be off the high ground by two. If they are flat and grey, I take a book.
I still carry a cheap barometer watch. Its numbers are not accurate, but the direction of change is, and a steady fall over an hour has turned me back more than once.
