Well for a start, if I was going to use a compass, I'd have to burn my bra!
And what about metal tooth-fillings from the old days or a false limb? How did Captain Hook do it?
Goodness - maybe it's better to just move in highly familiar areas so that one fits the brief for 'all those who wander are not lost.' Or words from Tolkein to that effect...
🤣 I couldn't be without my underwires either, Prue - hey, maybe that's been my problem all along...?! 🤔 And that's a good point re metal body parts.
Last week I got lost in the small rural town that's been my stamping ground on an on/off basis for the past nearly fifty years. I'm not sure ANY area feels 'highly familiar', to be honest! 🤣
I remember when they first realised that birds were following man-made roads to get from point A to B. Smart little creatures. And much more effective than a compass, particularly if you have iron reserves in your beak!! (Or bra!) Another educational and enjoyable read. Thanks so much dear Rebecca. 🤗🤗😘
I have no innate sense of direction, but the ridiculous belief that I do. I get lost a lot. I am a woman who needs straight lines, and yet my natural inclination is to color outside of them. Loved the info. on bees and pigeons, two creatures who have always amazed me with their innate sense of finding their way home.
I love your inner belief that you DO have a sense of direction Mary! Maybe it’s the old adage ‘if you build it they will come’! Keep on trying, except maybe if you’re in a dense forest. I’ve tried to pull it off in there and it took a long time to get out!
I laughed out loud with this, Donna! "...except maybe if you're in a dense forest." Now I want to hear the whole of your adventure getting of the one you entered.
We live near a huge forest so I’ve walked in there hundreds of times. When it was all animal trails I would be super careful to note my surroundings so I could get back. Then, sadly, some of it was developed and through parts of the forest are these large straight flat gravel roads. Easier, right?
Nope.
I got back in there and after my walk coming out I turned the wrong way on one of those flat gravel roads and ended up going a long way before realizing it was wrong. Then I was totally disoriented because simply going back didn’t work either so I had taken the wrong road. It was the strangest thing to be lost so close to home in a place I’d been so often🤣
Now I stick to the animal trails because, as Rebecca said, they is where they are going!
There have been other times too, this one just came to mind!
I got slightly lost on the Yiorkshire Moors once. I carefully noted all the landmarks, but on the way back it was getting dark, and I ended up about a mile away from where I'd parked the car. It was a bit worrying for a while because I didn't fancy being stranded out there. Tghis was years ago, before mobile phones.
Terry, this would be a fabulous opening line for a book, " I got slightly lost on the Yiorkshire Moors once." Now, being one who gets lost a lot, it makes me want to go there, but with someone who has a sense a direction, unlike me and my "Oh, I think I know the way" delusion.
I'm not sure Terry - no offence, Terry - would be the best companion for either of us on that trip, Mary, as he has openly admitted (in writing, on a public forum) to having already been 'slightly lost' in that location.
Oh gosh, actually you're so right - when a familiar layout is changed all bets are off! After a long pause in my own walks (like, about an entire season!) I found I was getting lost anew in autumn when suddenly there was a thick covering of leaves on the ground. They'd altered entirely the way I perceived the landscape - I got very lost and very, VERY cross with myself!
Ahhhh, the power of CONFIDENCE, Mary! I'm going to follow your lead: I'm going to believe in my fabulous sense of direction in future - that might make all the difference!
I absolutely love your analogy about despite needing straight lines you still go ahead and colour outside of them - that's a truly beautiful way of viewing the world. I'm writing those words in my journal, and thank you so much for giving me such terrific food for thought. 😘
Rebecca, you are a sweetheart. I have been told countless times that my "belief" is really "delusion masking fear." But, it doesn't feel like fear to me. Thank you so, so much for this lovely community of readers. I have so enjoyed everyone's response and no one knew just how much I needed it. (Not even me!)
Once I went for a walk in Kathmandu and was so exhilarated by the people and the neighborhoods and the sheer exoticity (is that even a word? It should be!) of it all that my own brain lumps became hopelessly confused. Then I remembered the iPhone in my pocket, pulled it out for a look at my maps app, and found a moving blue dot that located me in the urban tangle. It guided me through the city streets and alleys toward “home.” But what a thrilling moment of realizing that I’d run off leash and found a whole new landscape to explore. Time to stop and savor the momos.
Ah, Peter, that fantastic live-action 'you are here' blob - it's fantastic, isn't it? But in open country it's still problematic - with no roads to guide me I find it frustrating only to know where I am, not to see where I am going.
But that's a wonderful moment you've described - to have 'run off leash and found a whole new landscape to explore'. I think I need to remember that - and give myself a break when I find myself not where I think I am... Thank you so much for making me see the whole getting lost thing in more positive light! 😊
I did not know the RAF sent pigeons in every plane. This info on animals is fascinating.
A couple years ago I heard an excellent podcast about whales. Sadly, I cannot reference it as I regretfully didn’t keep it. The type of whales (maybe all?) they were discussing have the same electromagnetic ability to return home to have their calves. The science was quite robust and amazing.
I think there is so much we don’t know about electromagnetics, but I do know that I don’t seem to have that system built in as I’m like you with directions!
Yes I think it's going to be interesting what science discovers about the electromagnetic field of the earth and which animals are affected. Well, they already know a lot but more to come I'm sure.
So many cool things to study and learn and not quite enough time for the average reader!
"I’d make a rubbish spy" is my favorite quote so far in 2024. I think a movie about your spy-ness would be endearing and a huge box office hit! I loved reading about Bletchley Park, as Jim and I have enjoyed multiple movies about it. This was such an interesting post and I learned so much, especially about "lumps of magnetic material" in our brains and Winkie's story.
Bletchley Park is a fascinating place. It turned out that our tickets are valid for a calendar year, and because on our visit there hadn't really been time for me to wring everything out of the pigeon exhibit that I'd wanted to (it was a tiny, tiny part of a vast experience - there was so much to see!) I convinced Jim to take us there again for a couple of hours the next morning, rather than setting off on our long drive home! He left me sitting watching the video again and sought out some elevenses and a sit-down for himself.... 🤣
Have you seen 'The Imitation Game'? I found it absolutely gripping, and felt desperately sorry for Turing. I'd love to see it again now that I've been to Bletchley Park.
Sounds lovely, and yes! We've see "The Imitation Game" and a couple of others about code breakers. I'll see if I can remember those movies and send the titles, too. You're welcome, by the way. You would be great in your own movie!
My brother got this neat exploration kit when we were kids: it had a flashlight, binoculars, and a compass. I’m not sure how well it worked, because I never figured out how to use it. You’re far ahead of me!
I was wandering about my new/old city (I’ve lived here before, but I lived somewhere different and so my memories of Where Things Are are slightly off) and fumbled the paths. Halifax is a very old city, for Canada, and the streets are laid out accordingly...
I think it's really interesting that although you're back on familiar ground it's nevertheless not an easy thing to orientate yourself. I find that even if only a little time has passed my memories of where to go and how to get there - even if it's somewhere I know really well - are already dim!
Well I’m mindblown... how have we developed to struggle so much with navigation I wonder?! I wouldn’t mind a pet pigeon. My last row with my husband was when I said you seem to be heading south and he said no thinking he was in a village called Longframlingron where as actually he was in Longhorseley. The resolve - always put my google maps on even if he says he’s fine because I don’t trust myself enough and there’s also a Longhaughton near us. Seriously how’s anyone supposed to navigate anywhere when the signs are nearly the same?! 😂✨ 🗺️
Wow! I learned so much here, Rebecca. Great research on your part, both heuristic and textual. So interesting. Regarding your statement about "... a difficult series of paragraphs detailing the difficult stages involved in the difficult learning process of how to use such a difficult piece of equipment..." I have to say I am always suspicious of a book or teacher saying "It's easy!" It leads learners to think, "If it is so damned easy, then what's wrong with me? Why can't I get it? I must be stupid." This is not the way to motivate learners -- a point I made sure to emphasize in my work as a trainer of new teachers. It is always better to say, "This is difficult, and with a little practice, I know you can do it."
And you're right - the 'it's easy!' thing is decidedly unhelpful. I have to say that ever since I had first realised that I get lost the whole time (almost exactly this time two years ago, in fact) and have been coming to terms with that aspect of myself, I have become much, much more aware that many people just KNOW this stuff. But it's other things, too - some people find maths easy, but some just don't get on with numbers at all; some struggle with words and don't understand how people can read a book for pleasure without difficulty - and I think I've fallen into many traps in the past in terms of awareness of the ease/difficulty that Person A might experience with the same things that Person B finds difficult/easy.
We're all so different - and actually, that's brilliant! 🤩
I do okay in real life, but my sister and I like to play video games together. We become incredibly lost in the dungeons and our path exactly resembles your urban panic snaggle! You have my deepest sympathy.
Ooooh Kerry, that's so interesting! Perhaps just as I can't transpose what I see in 2D form on a map into my 3D environment, the difference in dimension between real life and video games has the same kind of disorientating effect? Wow!
I'm very impressed with the mount of research you put into this. I've saved this for future reference. I've always found it humorous how birds in England (and presumably elsewhere) will follow roads like the M1 and come off at roundabouts or slip roads to get to their destination :-) (as I've just discovered you related in your article!).
Thanks so much, Terry! D'you know, I'd never noticed birds following roads in that way, but a couple of people have mentioned it in the comments now, so I feel my observation skills have been lacking! I was absolutely blown away when the chap in the video described homing pigeons 'taking the third exit off the roundabout'! 🤣 I'm going to be looking at pigeons much more closely next time I'm travelling!
Really interesting! I love heroic animal stories, and it warms my heart to see pigeons getting some love after the insults they usually receive (rats with wings, etc.) They're kind of amazing creatures when you think about it. As for the "lumps of magnetic material" I think mine, if I have them, must have their polarities reversed or something. You know how you can turn magnets around and make them repel one another? That's me and my destination...
You're so kind, Jacquie - many thanks! I too have heard the 'rats with wings' description, which is just mean!
You made me laugh out loud with your reverse polarity comment! 'You know how you can turn magnets around and make them repel one another? That's me and my destination...' Have just written this in my journal to giggle at in posterity! It's SO me.........! 🤣
Awwww, thanks, Luisa - and I love your pronunciation of pig-ee-on - that's gorgeous!
Happy planner hunting! SUCH a fun project, I always find! 😊
Well for a start, if I was going to use a compass, I'd have to burn my bra!
And what about metal tooth-fillings from the old days or a false limb? How did Captain Hook do it?
Goodness - maybe it's better to just move in highly familiar areas so that one fits the brief for 'all those who wander are not lost.' Or words from Tolkein to that effect...
🤣 I couldn't be without my underwires either, Prue - hey, maybe that's been my problem all along...?! 🤔 And that's a good point re metal body parts.
Last week I got lost in the small rural town that's been my stamping ground on an on/off basis for the past nearly fifty years. I'm not sure ANY area feels 'highly familiar', to be honest! 🤣
I remember when they first realised that birds were following man-made roads to get from point A to B. Smart little creatures. And much more effective than a compass, particularly if you have iron reserves in your beak!! (Or bra!) Another educational and enjoyable read. Thanks so much dear Rebecca. 🤗🤗😘
'Iron reserves in your bra'! Beth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's BRILLIANT!!!
🤣🤣🤣
I have no innate sense of direction, but the ridiculous belief that I do. I get lost a lot. I am a woman who needs straight lines, and yet my natural inclination is to color outside of them. Loved the info. on bees and pigeons, two creatures who have always amazed me with their innate sense of finding their way home.
I love your inner belief that you DO have a sense of direction Mary! Maybe it’s the old adage ‘if you build it they will come’! Keep on trying, except maybe if you’re in a dense forest. I’ve tried to pull it off in there and it took a long time to get out!
I laughed out loud with this, Donna! "...except maybe if you're in a dense forest." Now I want to hear the whole of your adventure getting of the one you entered.
We live near a huge forest so I’ve walked in there hundreds of times. When it was all animal trails I would be super careful to note my surroundings so I could get back. Then, sadly, some of it was developed and through parts of the forest are these large straight flat gravel roads. Easier, right?
Nope.
I got back in there and after my walk coming out I turned the wrong way on one of those flat gravel roads and ended up going a long way before realizing it was wrong. Then I was totally disoriented because simply going back didn’t work either so I had taken the wrong road. It was the strangest thing to be lost so close to home in a place I’d been so often🤣
Now I stick to the animal trails because, as Rebecca said, they is where they are going!
There have been other times too, this one just came to mind!
"Stick to the animal trails."
I got slightly lost on the Yiorkshire Moors once. I carefully noted all the landmarks, but on the way back it was getting dark, and I ended up about a mile away from where I'd parked the car. It was a bit worrying for a while because I didn't fancy being stranded out there. Tghis was years ago, before mobile phones.
The Yorkshire moors are so vast that even 'slightly lost' sounds incredibly alarming, Terry! Nice one for finding the car eventually!
Being from the great forest of Canada the thought of getting lost on the Yorkshire Moors scares the dickens out of me.
as does the great forest of Canada me, if that makes sense (it doesn't sound right somehow)
mebbe it was cos you confused the yorkshire moors with the yiokshire moors.......
😬
🤣
Terry, this would be a fabulous opening line for a book, " I got slightly lost on the Yiorkshire Moors once." Now, being one who gets lost a lot, it makes me want to go there, but with someone who has a sense a direction, unlike me and my "Oh, I think I know the way" delusion.
I'm not sure Terry - no offence, Terry - would be the best companion for either of us on that trip, Mary, as he has openly admitted (in writing, on a public forum) to having already been 'slightly lost' in that location.
#safetyfirst
Lol thanks, Mary!
Oh gosh, actually you're so right - when a familiar layout is changed all bets are off! After a long pause in my own walks (like, about an entire season!) I found I was getting lost anew in autumn when suddenly there was a thick covering of leaves on the ground. They'd altered entirely the way I perceived the landscape - I got very lost and very, VERY cross with myself!
Wow, this is such a powerful statement and truth, "They'd altered entirely the way I perceived the landscape..." I think this will stick with me.
Oh gosh, Donna, that dense forest experience doesn't sound like much fun!
Ahhhh, the power of CONFIDENCE, Mary! I'm going to follow your lead: I'm going to believe in my fabulous sense of direction in future - that might make all the difference!
I absolutely love your analogy about despite needing straight lines you still go ahead and colour outside of them - that's a truly beautiful way of viewing the world. I'm writing those words in my journal, and thank you so much for giving me such terrific food for thought. 😘
Rebecca, you are a sweetheart. I have been told countless times that my "belief" is really "delusion masking fear." But, it doesn't feel like fear to me. Thank you so, so much for this lovely community of readers. I have so enjoyed everyone's response and no one knew just how much I needed it. (Not even me!)
Oh Mary, it's my absolute pleasure. You've got this! 😘🙌😊
Once I went for a walk in Kathmandu and was so exhilarated by the people and the neighborhoods and the sheer exoticity (is that even a word? It should be!) of it all that my own brain lumps became hopelessly confused. Then I remembered the iPhone in my pocket, pulled it out for a look at my maps app, and found a moving blue dot that located me in the urban tangle. It guided me through the city streets and alleys toward “home.” But what a thrilling moment of realizing that I’d run off leash and found a whole new landscape to explore. Time to stop and savor the momos.
Yes! I have experienced this same phenomenon, Peter. Thrilling! And yes, exoticity is a word even though my spell check disagrees.
'Exoticity' is my new favourite word!
A witches spell from the city of Katmexoti....
Ah, Peter, that fantastic live-action 'you are here' blob - it's fantastic, isn't it? But in open country it's still problematic - with no roads to guide me I find it frustrating only to know where I am, not to see where I am going.
But that's a wonderful moment you've described - to have 'run off leash and found a whole new landscape to explore'. I think I need to remember that - and give myself a break when I find myself not where I think I am... Thank you so much for making me see the whole getting lost thing in more positive light! 😊
I love how lost you become! Throw off the bounds of the conventional! Wander!
🤣
I did not know the RAF sent pigeons in every plane. This info on animals is fascinating.
A couple years ago I heard an excellent podcast about whales. Sadly, I cannot reference it as I regretfully didn’t keep it. The type of whales (maybe all?) they were discussing have the same electromagnetic ability to return home to have their calves. The science was quite robust and amazing.
I think there is so much we don’t know about electromagnetics, but I do know that I don’t seem to have that system built in as I’m like you with directions!
Great essay Rebecca!
Thank you so much, Donna! And gosh, yes, the whales! 🐳
I'd love to have a read around animal migration - whales, swallows, wildebeest - they're all so switched-on, aren't they?!
Yes I think it's going to be interesting what science discovers about the electromagnetic field of the earth and which animals are affected. Well, they already know a lot but more to come I'm sure.
So many cool things to study and learn and not quite enough time for the average reader!
There's so much we don't yet know, isn't there? It's a fascinating world!
"I’d make a rubbish spy" is my favorite quote so far in 2024. I think a movie about your spy-ness would be endearing and a huge box office hit! I loved reading about Bletchley Park, as Jim and I have enjoyed multiple movies about it. This was such an interesting post and I learned so much, especially about "lumps of magnetic material" in our brains and Winkie's story.
LOL Mary - thank you!
Bletchley Park is a fascinating place. It turned out that our tickets are valid for a calendar year, and because on our visit there hadn't really been time for me to wring everything out of the pigeon exhibit that I'd wanted to (it was a tiny, tiny part of a vast experience - there was so much to see!) I convinced Jim to take us there again for a couple of hours the next morning, rather than setting off on our long drive home! He left me sitting watching the video again and sought out some elevenses and a sit-down for himself.... 🤣
Have you seen 'The Imitation Game'? I found it absolutely gripping, and felt desperately sorry for Turing. I'd love to see it again now that I've been to Bletchley Park.
Sounds lovely, and yes! We've see "The Imitation Game" and a couple of others about code breakers. I'll see if I can remember those movies and send the titles, too. You're welcome, by the way. You would be great in your own movie!
Oh! I found a list of movies about codebreakers and Bletchley Park here https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=bletchley-park
We've seen The Imitation Game, The Bletchley Circle, and Enigma. Those we haven't seen look interesting, too!
Oh, that's brilliant - thanks, Mary! I'll be seeking those out! 😊
My brother got this neat exploration kit when we were kids: it had a flashlight, binoculars, and a compass. I’m not sure how well it worked, because I never figured out how to use it. You’re far ahead of me!
I was wandering about my new/old city (I’ve lived here before, but I lived somewhere different and so my memories of Where Things Are are slightly off) and fumbled the paths. Halifax is a very old city, for Canada, and the streets are laid out accordingly...
Oooooh, that sounds like a great kit, Alison!
I think it's really interesting that although you're back on familiar ground it's nevertheless not an easy thing to orientate yourself. I find that even if only a little time has passed my memories of where to go and how to get there - even if it's somewhere I know really well - are already dim!
Well I’m mindblown... how have we developed to struggle so much with navigation I wonder?! I wouldn’t mind a pet pigeon. My last row with my husband was when I said you seem to be heading south and he said no thinking he was in a village called Longframlingron where as actually he was in Longhorseley. The resolve - always put my google maps on even if he says he’s fine because I don’t trust myself enough and there’s also a Longhaughton near us. Seriously how’s anyone supposed to navigate anywhere when the signs are nearly the same?! 😂✨ 🗺️
It’s safe to say we went the LONG way round back home!
🤣
Yes, where are those lumps of magnetic magic in human heads, hmm?! I feel we're missing out, Claire!
And that's so funny about Longframlington vs Longhaughton - I can quite understand how that happened! 🤣
Wow! I learned so much here, Rebecca. Great research on your part, both heuristic and textual. So interesting. Regarding your statement about "... a difficult series of paragraphs detailing the difficult stages involved in the difficult learning process of how to use such a difficult piece of equipment..." I have to say I am always suspicious of a book or teacher saying "It's easy!" It leads learners to think, "If it is so damned easy, then what's wrong with me? Why can't I get it? I must be stupid." This is not the way to motivate learners -- a point I made sure to emphasize in my work as a trainer of new teachers. It is always better to say, "This is difficult, and with a little practice, I know you can do it."
Oh Sharron, thank you ever so much!
And you're right - the 'it's easy!' thing is decidedly unhelpful. I have to say that ever since I had first realised that I get lost the whole time (almost exactly this time two years ago, in fact) and have been coming to terms with that aspect of myself, I have become much, much more aware that many people just KNOW this stuff. But it's other things, too - some people find maths easy, but some just don't get on with numbers at all; some struggle with words and don't understand how people can read a book for pleasure without difficulty - and I think I've fallen into many traps in the past in terms of awareness of the ease/difficulty that Person A might experience with the same things that Person B finds difficult/easy.
We're all so different - and actually, that's brilliant! 🤩
This is settled; the next time I'm disoriented, I'm consulting a bee or pigeon! Super interesting post, Rebecca!
It seems as if they know their way, doesn't it?! If only I were the same.....! 🤣
I do okay in real life, but my sister and I like to play video games together. We become incredibly lost in the dungeons and our path exactly resembles your urban panic snaggle! You have my deepest sympathy.
Ooooh Kerry, that's so interesting! Perhaps just as I can't transpose what I see in 2D form on a map into my 3D environment, the difference in dimension between real life and video games has the same kind of disorientating effect? Wow!
Fascinating post, Rebecca, love learning more about animals' powers and ingenuity.
indeed
Thanks, Mya! 😊
I'm very impressed with the mount of research you put into this. I've saved this for future reference. I've always found it humorous how birds in England (and presumably elsewhere) will follow roads like the M1 and come off at roundabouts or slip roads to get to their destination :-) (as I've just discovered you related in your article!).
Thanks so much, Terry! D'you know, I'd never noticed birds following roads in that way, but a couple of people have mentioned it in the comments now, so I feel my observation skills have been lacking! I was absolutely blown away when the chap in the video described homing pigeons 'taking the third exit off the roundabout'! 🤣 I'm going to be looking at pigeons much more closely next time I'm travelling!
funny innit?!
Really interesting! I love heroic animal stories, and it warms my heart to see pigeons getting some love after the insults they usually receive (rats with wings, etc.) They're kind of amazing creatures when you think about it. As for the "lumps of magnetic material" I think mine, if I have them, must have their polarities reversed or something. You know how you can turn magnets around and make them repel one another? That's me and my destination...
You're so kind, Jacquie - many thanks! I too have heard the 'rats with wings' description, which is just mean!
You made me laugh out loud with your reverse polarity comment! 'You know how you can turn magnets around and make them repel one another? That's me and my destination...' Have just written this in my journal to giggle at in posterity! It's SO me.........! 🤣
Lovely read Rebecca, I was particularly fascinated to learn about the skills of pigeons 🥰🥰
Thanks, Lyndsay! Clever critters, aren't they?! 😊