"Look at it this way"

This is the 125th Anniversary year of the Geographical Association , and the conference in Sheffield in April will be very special. One of the projects I'm doing (and have been doing for some time) is to tweet out a 'top tip' a day for 125 days on the GA Secondary Phase committee twitter feed . This is coming to a climax on the first day of the conference. As part of the plans for the GA's celebrations, and connecting with my OS GetOutside Champions Role for 2018, I'm going to start collating a list of 125 inspirational places to visit in the UK. We all have places from which we draw inspiration... This could be a beach, a particular walk, a historic building, a bench overlooking a viewpoint, a landscape feature or something more esoteric.  The reasons behind the inspiration may relate to family members, an emotional reunion, or sad passing; they may be places that are visited often, or which left a lasting impression from a single visit. They may be places

This tweet from the writer Melissa Harrison, of whom I'm a great fan, struck a chord earlier as I was flitting from one project and deadline to the next to keep the plates spinning, and thinking about some writing I have pencilled in for the Easter holidays. I stand by every word of this. There's no entrance exam for being a nature writer; nor should there be. The ability to engage interest, inspire connection and rouse curiosity is what's required to change lives and create a new cohort of people who will protect nature. #WildLines https://t.co/23zEYlnHAw — Melissa Harrison 🌾 (@M_Z_Harrison) March 9, 2018

Earlier in the week, it was out to the Norfolk Coast to explore the area around Sheringham and Overstrand . We followed the River Glaven along parts of its route, and then headed for the coast at Overstrand to see an active slump and the measures in place to stop it happening. Here's a few of the images I took which I quite like - click for biggery Images: Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license

The Ordnance Survey is launching a range of handheld / cycle mounted GPS units, which make use of Ordnance Survey mapping. We were shown the details at the GetOutside Champions launch a few months ago, but the details are now emerging on the OS Leisure Blog. Our four new handheld GPS devices come with advanced navigation yet simple functionality. Designed for hiking and off-road cycling, they’re rugged, water-resistant and come with all the accuracy and detail of our world-famous large-scale leisure maps. Not only that, they’re packed with features to keep you on track with your performance, and let you and others know exactly where you are. You can also sync with other products to plot and share routes, or monitor your heart rate, energy and speed. Find out more details HERE.  Sign up to get the news on features and pricing. I am hoping to get my hands on one for a while, to trial them for use in geography fieldwork and similar contexts.