"Throughout this book we have looked at the many clues and signs in nature that will allow you to make predictions and deductions during your walks. Each time we have been looking at parts of a broader network in the natural world: animals, plants, rocks, soil, water, light, sky and people are all connected. The track of an animal in the mud would disappear if you changed any one of the parameters around it even slightly. A slightly larger cloud would have altered the path of the butterfly, which would have changed the movement of the bird, which would have led the cat elsewhere. . . .
"Once you know how to look for clues in nature, you can quickly work out how to join two or more things together that were never previously associated in your mind. For example, the moon will tell you what the sea is doing, which in turn can be connected to beach lichens, fish and bird activity, but it won't tell you anything useful about the trees you will find on your walk. The plants can tell you about rocks, soils, water, minerals and many more things, but they will not give you much insight into the flow of people in cities. Fortunately there are enough overlaps that it is usually easy to get from an observation in one area to a deduction in another area by using a stepping-stone approach. The moon might not seem to tell you much about the tree in front of you, but it can tell you which way is south and this might help unlock the tree's secrets."
