The day before I decide to go out on yet another metal detecting excursion, I usually start the day by studying the many maps I have collected over the years.
Maps can be the right arm of the metal detectorist, pointing out the various environments, sources of water, outlooks and other very important features, that made our ancestors choose to live there.
This is why Igo metal detecting I always see this part of my hobby, as the hunt.
Getting all the information together, then armed with these facts and figures I go out out after my quarry.
It could be that I am seeking a roman site, possibly a medieval or saxon settlement.
Top of my list would be to find an artifact and coin infested celtic settlement or site.
Whatever it turns out to be, I thrill at having found it.
As I close in on my chosen area for that day, I start by field walking any ploughed fields, that I have been given permission to walk on.
Having found such a field with a good source of water to hand, I start looking to see if the soil is darker in various areas of that field.
This could tell you if people have been there over a long time, and possibly lived and worked there as well.
Having found such an area, I would now start to look over it for items that would give away its purpose.
A scattering of pottery here and there, possibly pebbles, flint or other items not natural to the location.
They would have been taken there by our ancestors, and used as tools and aids for their everyday lives.
It gives me so much pleasure when the research ends, with yet another hunted down site to go metal detecting on.
Detecting has been my hobby for over seventeen years, and each time I go metal detecting I cannot help being so excited.
What will today bring, a roman sistertius coin, or possibly one of the fibulas that held their togas together.
Some of the finds can be quite plain, whilst others can be highly decorative and are works of art in their own right.