The Things They Carried

In a recent movie, independent film makers Liberty Smith and Sophie Windsor documented soldiers from various conflicts talking poignantly about the lucky charms they would take with them into battle. The degree of danger and the absence of certainty meant that sources of personal strength -whatever they might be - took on an importance that we can barely grasp in this age of reason.

Sophie and Liberty are also responsible for one of the most moving and downright incredible pieces of footage ever to be taken from a canoe: Murmuration. If watching that doesn't make you want to take to the water, I don't know what will.

This little pebble is not beautiful, pockmarked with manganese oxide as it is. But it comes from a remarkable place, dear to many people's hearts... Inchmarnock. A teardrop island off the coast of Mull, it was the final resting place of Viking chieftains who died when the seas were too savage to take their bodies across the sound to Iona.

This pebble takes to the sea whenever I do.