Although I did a podcast series (about beer) a few years ago, it’s taken me this long to begin experimenting with audio here. Partly, it was about the challenges of doing so and the limitations of what media could be uploaded. However, the wait is over and I give you… a mini – or maybe that should be nano – podcast about the joy of gazing at the sea on a foggy day! (You can see a picture, of the scene I’m describing, below the audio player.)

I started my present career, about 20 years ago, as a trainee broadcast journalist, focusing on radio and making audio ‘packages’, a medium which has evolved into podcasting. At the time I finished my training, and earned my qualification, there was no easy way to self-publish radio pieces. So in a box somewhere, on something called a ‘mini disc’ there lies a 15-minute programme I made about volunteering on Skomer Island. I think I made some tapes of it and shared it with a few people but mostly no one heard it. Perhaps it’s no bad thing as listening back to it, it’s quite crudely put together – in technical terms – but I sometimes feel a bit wistful about being ‘ahead of the curve’ and allowing myself to be deterred by the challenges of finding someone who would commission me to make radio programmes. Then again, maybe now’s just the time to get over it.

Acknowledgement: I was in part inspired to have a crack at some mini outdoorsy podcasts by fellow writer Tom Cox and his ‘Ramblecasts’ – which I recommend listening to.