<p class="">Martin Hesp takes a winter walk on Dunkery - on Christmas Eve 2020 as it happens - because there was nothing else much to do</p>

<p class="">Martin Hesp tells a Christmas Ghost Story from Somerset </p>

<p class="">A stroll on Blue Anchor beach towards the alabaster cliffs, with Martin Hesp</p>

<p class="">An account of the Cutcombe Christmas Fatstock Show - this one’s from a report Martin Hesp wrote in 2016</p>

<p class="">Making winter beer - the art of traditional ale making in winter</p>

<p class="">There’s a glacier in Iceland which covers a live volcano with 900 feet of solid ice. one it will blow its top and all that ice will melt in hours causing enormous problems across the Atlantic. Martin Hesp went up there one cold summer’s day for a look around</p>

<p class="">Wills Neck is the highest hill on The Quantocks. It’s a wonderful eminence that gives the walker great panoramas of Somerset and beyond - from it you can see the Brendon Hills, Exmoor, the Blackdown Hills, the Mendips and the Welsh Mountains</p>

<p class="">Martin Hesp remembers a fantastic beach cook-up he did with North Devon’s Dan the Fishman 2 years ago - it was a celebration of Christmas in the run-up to December 25th - and, as Dan says, everyone should enjoy a beach picnic in the depths of winter</p>

<p class="">A simple hike done to Cogden Beach on the Dorset Coast - Martin Hesp walked the littoral after a visit to the organic outfit at magical Tamarisk Farm</p>

<p class="">The place where desert meets a green and watery paradise - Salalah in Oman. Martin Hesp visits the deep damp valleys underneath the ‘cloud cliffs’ that keep the coastal plain around the city of Salalah on the Oman-Yemen border moist </p>

<p class="">Martin Hesp recalls a few days he spent wandering around Bari on Italy’s east coast</p>

<p class="">A lovely, easy, scenic circular walk from Flushing around to Mylor on the Fal Estuary</p>

<p class="">Robin Turner talks fish at Christmas - advice and how to order the shellfish and other marine delights for the festive period</p>

<p class="">The Lemon Tree Forest is a novel set partly in Greece and partly in West Somerset’s Brendon Hills. Here writer Martin Hesp reproduces a single chapter after hearing about the death of a rather lonely middle-aged man on the other side of the hills.</p>

<p class="">The walk from Lulworth Cove to Durdle Dor on the Dorset coast must be one of the most popular hikes in all of England - best do it in winter then, far from the madding crowds, says Martin Hesp</p>

<p class="">If the Festive Season is going to be a different this year, why not have some experimental fun and barbecue your Christmas dinner</p>

<p class="">Winter coastal walking in Cornwall - Martin Hesp visits Tregardock on the north coast</p>

<p class="">Winter salads are a must at this time of the year - Martin Hesp enjoys making healthy raw food in winter</p>

For us it was upwards and onwards – this time to the St Etienne Cantalès Lake where we were to do a walk around the Puech des Ouilhes peninsula. The lake is in fact a reservoir – a rather beautiful wood-lined one – and it has all the usual refinements the French love to go in for. Give them a watering hole and the French will erect diving boards, float pedaloes, create artificial sand beaches, build cafes - and great gangs of well behaved teenagers will droop around looking e

<p class="">The railroad up to Andermatt - Martin Hesp begins the first in a short series of recollections of visiting the high Alpine town</p>