Hayden Lorimer explores the double life of Walter Poucher: mountain photographer and perfumer. Poucher invented the perfume 'Bond Street' and also wrote upland guidebooks. He was a pioneer of mountain photography from the 1930s onwards and devised guidebooks that used photos to help hillwalkers and climbers. But he had a second life as well - in 1923 he had published a three volume handbook on perfumes and cosmetics that remains in print and, working for the perfumers Yardley, he invented one...

Trai Anfield visits a wintry Bovisand Bay in South Devon in the company of Keith Hiscock, Associate Fellow of the Marine Biological Association. They rummage amongst the storm strewn seaweed making up the strand line at the top of the beach. It is here that insects and crustaceans flourish in the food rich and clement micro world, in turn drawing in birds like wagtails and turn stones. Down in the inter-tidal zone, along with finding a host of marine molluscs are the excitingly named...

Writer Jonathan Gornall has attempted to row across the Atlantic twice. On the second attempt he nearly drowned but his relationship with the sea has continued. Today he spends his time at Pin Mill in Suffolk where he has just built a small sailing boat for his daughter and he hopes the boat will teach her to love the sea too. Helen Mark meets him and the boat building community who live beside the River Orwell to discover the great history of sailing which remains at the heart of Pin Mill...

In this new series of Ramblings, Clare Balding explores the way walking can help us bond with other people, the countryside and our history. In this first programme she's invited to take part in the 20th annual walk up to the top of the Stiperstones in Shropshire with a group of men who came together to bond as fathers. Quentin Shaw started the tradition when his sons were at primary school as a way of encouraging the men to get to know each other. The group has grown from the original five...

In the depths of the winter, on the old 12th Night, an ancient custom is held in the cider apple orchards of Somerset. Wassailing involves pouring cider round the roots of the wassail tree, putting cider-soaked toast in its branches, singing to it, and sometimes firing guns through its branches. It's all about scaring away evil spirits, and encouraging the trees to produce a good crop in the year to come. Wassailing is a tradition with many elements: blessing the crops goes back to at least...

Wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson rigs up microphones in a reed bed near the River Severn and then waits for dusk and a wildlife spectacle to arrive.

A selection of new programmes has been added to inspire your next outdoor adventure, whatever the weather.

The bulldozers have already begun work on London's 'cycle superhighways' or 'Crossrail for bikes'. Cycling enthusiasts have declared these segregated lanes to be the infrastructure which London needs to make cycling much more appealing for all. Andrew Gilligan, the Mayor's Cycling Commissioner says if Transport for London can get the engineering right then cycling in the capital will become safer and far more people might make the switch from cars, buses and trains to carbon free pedal power....

In 1911 a photograph of young Bittern in the nest taken by Emma Turner proved that Bitterns were breeding again in Norfolk having been driven to extinction in Britain in the late 1800s. Using extracts from her book, 'Broadland Birds', this programme tells the remarkable story of Emma Turner a pioneer of bird photography (1866-1940); who spent some 20 years at Hickling Broad in Norfolk, where she lived on a houseboat she designed named 'Water Rail' (after the first photograph she took in the...

There's a gold rush in Cornwall; it's been going on for more than a century - producing the first flowers of spring, daffodils especially. Like mining, it's marked the landscape, and there are networks of tiny fields west of Mousehole and in the Isles of Scilly. Smaller than tennis courts, they nestle, safe from the wind between high hedges, warm on south facing terraced cliffs. From these old flower fields, called quillets, came something even more valuable than the 'Golden Harvest' of...

With a two metre wingspan, strong hooked beak and four inch talons, harpy eagles are one of the most powerful birds of prey in the world and have been known to attack people who get too close to their nests, so when wildlife cameraman John Aitchison agreed to spend a month on a tiny platform high up in rainforest canopy in Venezuela to try and film a young eagle chick hunting for the first time, it was with some trepidation at what might lie ahead. John abseiled down from his platform each...

Winner of this 2018's prestigious BBC/RGS dream journey award is Paralympian Karen Darke who rides along the length of Australia's Murray River on hand-cycle Fresh from competing in the para-triathlon at this year's Commonwealth Games, Rio gold medallist Karen Darke heads for Australia's Snowy Mountains and the source of the 'Mighty' River Murray. On hand-cycle she takes a very personal journey down along its 2000 miles from source to sea. She reflects on the challenges facing the river as...

The reef break at Thurso on the rugged North Coast of Scotland is one of the best waves in Europe. Helen Mark meets Thurso's surfing community, from the pioneers who began surfing in the 1970s on empty waves, to the up-and-coming young surfers hoping to make Scotland's national squad this year. Presented by Helen Mark. Produced by Sophie Anton. First broadcast on 4 April, 2019.

A journey through the seasons in the company of an oak tree. Beginning in winter with the sounds of melting ice and a lone robin singing its plaintive melody, we travel through the seasons, noting not only the changes in the oak tree, but the wildlife which relies on the tree for food and shelter. In spring the young leaves break free of their bud scales and the number of young caterpillars in the foliage can be so great that on a fine day their droppings or frass can sound like rain. By...

What looks a sponge, smells like a volcano and is found in rock pools? Well, the answer can be found in A Guide to Coastal Wildlife, a series of programmes in which Brett Westwood joins naturalist Phil Gates on the coast of Northumberland and with the help of recordings by wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, they offer a practical and entertaining guide to the wildlife which you’re most likely to see and hear in different coastal habitats. In this first of five episodes they start with...

Guest presenter Ian Marchant meets people who live off-grid in his part of the world, near Presteigne in mid-Wales. There's Bob, who started his off-grid life on the hippy trail in the sixties, driving over-land to Afghanistan and bringing back the first Afghan coats to the London fashion scene. Now he lives in a wood, still making jewellery and living in his van. For him, there's adventure in every aspect of his life, even the washing up, especially if you have to do it in 'horizontal...

Maggie Aderin-Pocock has been fascinated by space since she was a young child. When she was six years old she caught the bug when she saw a picture of an astronaut on the front of a book in her primary school library. As a teenager she built her own telescope. After studying physics and mechanical engineering, Maggie worked in industrial research before returning to her first love, astronomy, when she managed the building of an instrument on a giant telescope in Chile. Now, she spends her...

Clare Balding goes rambling, near Machynlleth, with the writer and environmentalist, George Monbiot. The theme of this series of Ramblings is 'In Search Of.' and, together, George and Clare are walking in search of wildness. George's new book, 'Feral', is partly a personal story about his attempt to stave off the monochrome nature of modern-day life: "I could not continue just sitting and writing, looking after my daughter and my house, running merely to stay fit, watching the seasons...

Does being in nature aid our mental health? Isabel Hardman, Assistant Editor of The Spectator, discusses with Dr Alan Kellas, a psychiatrist who advises the Royal College of Psychiatry on the subject. Isabel struggled with depression, and found that developing an interest in plants and working outside has helped her to recover. Meeting Alan in the woods, they talk of exercising outdoors, of watching the seasons turn, and of having regular places to visit that take us outside ourselves,...

As the sun continues to blaze Sheila Dillon looks at the ups and downs of Outdoor Cooking. Do you remember when only slightly unusual people went camping? Not any more. It's dead fashionable, thanks partly to music festival culture. It's also reasonably cheap - or can be - and of course the warmer summers help, along with all the new gadgets and toys you can buy for life under canvas. But what to eat? Are you an empty-the-whole-kitchen-into-the-car camper? Or an...

Helen Mark visits the Cairngorms in Scotland to find out why this landscape was an inspiration and a refuge for writer Nan Shepherd. Shepherd's neglected book 'The Living Mountain' has found new audiences with a resurgence in the popularity of nature writing in recent years and recognition of her importance has resulted in her image featuring on the new Scottish five pound note. Helen meets Nan's long-time friend and 'adopted family member' Erlend Clouston, as well as local people who share...

Clare Balding walks with the celebrated author and academic, Robert Macfarlane who takes her from his home in Cambridge out onto the Icknield Way. For a man known to love mountains, Robert explains how he's slowly come to love the tame lowlands of Cambridgeshire and how he now relies on climbing trees to give him height and views. While Clare is not tempted to join him at the top of an accommodating beech tree, she's happy to admire the graffiti left on the bark. Walking out in the summer...

Roger Deakin glides quietly amongst the moorhens as he paddles his canoe, Cigarette, through the shallows of the River Waveney to discover the sounds of the river and its wildlife. Canoeing the Waveney from one Suffolk mill to the next you enter another world, quiet except for the sounds of the river and its wildlife. Cigarette on the Waveney combines a personal narration by writer and conservationist Roger Deakin, recorded during the journey over several days and nights, with an evocative...

Nature documentaries to inspire your next outdoors adventure. Introduced by Harriet Noble. Discover the joy of wild swimming, the secrets of outdoor cooking and the tranquillity of canoeing down a river. Whether you’re an intrepid explorer or a weekend micro adventurer we have a Radio 4 programme for you.