I would describe my M&S cagoule as a functional bit of kit which happens to have a little bit of bright yellow trim. I would describe my new black Craghoppers Pakka as ideal for keeping out the rain and blending in with the SAS on a night training exercise in the hills (provided I smear my face with boot polish of course). Paul Saunders

On a similar theme, what colour is your car or even your house? Does it have a negative effect on the locale? The colour of my car is a luxury I can't afford.  As mentioned elsewhere, I buy rubbishy second-hand cars.  Issues like Does it start? ,   Does it go? and Will it stop again? take precedence over How pretty is it? . Besides, I think cars look horrible anyway, disgusting blots on the landscape.  They blend in well with cities, which are also disgusting blots on the landscape.  I think all cars and most houses have a negative effect on the locale. I have to say that most of the products of civilisation don't conform to my aesthetic sensibilities. Paul Saunders

At the weekend I was lucky enough to be up the remote hill of Stob an Aonaich Mhoir on Loch Ericht.  I could see, opposite, the path under Beinn Bheoil, along the loch and there were two obvious blobs - in flourescent green (helicpter pilots green?) With the bins I could see that they were in a large party - mostly traditionaly dressed and hard to spot, some in bright reds and yellow, more visible, but still quite unobrusive.  They could not be seen without the glasses. The lime 'viva' green....   realy stood out. Yes green is a wonderfully flexible colour, it can look bright or drab, really cool or make you want to puke.  Emerald Green is my favourite but you don't get many things in that particular shade. Anyway, what I really wanted to ask about is Military Green.  With all this talk about green being a highly visible colour (to helicopter pilots) I find myself wondering if it has any special properties. We all know that police helicopters use infra-red sighting equipment to track criminals from the air, and I'm sure there must be other kinds of sighting equipment that the military use, so... Does ordinary green clothing (if there is such a thing) possess any properties that makes it easy to spot using special equipment?  The corollary to this is whether Military Green possesses a different property that specifically can't be spotted by such sighting equipment. Does anyone know what I'm getting at or am I talking complete rubbish here? The reason I ask is because of my rucksack, a Berghaus Cyclops Roc, which just happens to be a nice shade of Military Green.  The odd thing is that whenever I take a photograph of it it always comes out looking brown (take a look at my photo in uk.rec.walkers if you wish to observe this phenomenon). All the other colours in my photographs are true to life, but the rucksack consistently records as brown every time, I've never been able to understand this.  Has anyone else witnessed this effect? Obviously the rays of light reflecting off the rucksack into the camera's lens are somehow being recorded differently on film.  But how?  Before suggesting that the film is to blame I'd like to stress that I've observed exactly the same effect with many different types of film, and it's only (and always) the rucksack that is affected, everything else is true to life. Could this particular shade of green have been somehow developed by the military to minimise the chance of being spotted by high-tech sighting equipment? Could I be wearing a Stealth Rucksack? Paul Saunders

Could I be wearing a Stealth Rucksack? Paul Saunders Is it vaguely pyramid shaped, and does it show up on radar? Try a walk around those domes near Pately Bridge Yorkshire, but don't tell them I suggested it.