"Look at it this way"

Came across a cracking little guide to the pebbles on the beaches of Scotland (in particular) by the Scottish Geology Trust. It's a free PDF download from this link. Scottish Geology Trust ©2021 This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence. 

A few years ago, I spent a lot of time producing an entry for a writing competition, which required a piece of descriptive writing linked the Fens and travelling, and encounters with nature and wildlife. I can't remember the exact rubric, but it was about travelling. I decided to write about a journey that I have made over 2000 times .... from home to work and back again. It took me weeks to write on and off, and at the end I didn't think it was quite good enough to enter, so never used it - imposter syndrome again perhaps. It's sat on my hard drive for a couple of years and perhaps now is time to just put it out there... I'm quite pleased with some elements of it. B1145-A1065-A47-A1122-A10 by Alan Parkinson This piece also acts as an example of quotidian geography . This is something that is the daily experience for many, although a growing number have never had a job, or are currently out of work. Some travel to work or school the same way each day - some by tr...

This Guardian piece by John Harris explores something which hydrologists have known for decades. We know how to stop communities from flooding, but it takes the politicians to prioritise the funding for the methods that work: nature based solutions often, and stop allowing developers to build housing in floodplains - and a whole raft of other things such as proper drainage schemes. The piece also features a really nice illustration by Nathalie Lees. The AVIVA report from October that is referenced here is worth a read. There are references to particular landmarks - physical features as well as buildings - and some specific statistics. The report also outlines how many properties could be at risk across the UK. In England, the number of homes at risk from flooding is set to increase by over a quarter (27%), from 6.3 million to 8 million. While coastal flooding could put 3.2 million homes at threat, worryingly, surface water flooding– or flash floods – which are harder to predict and pr...

This is a project which I worked on through 2024 and into 2025. It's finally out there for you to download and play.  And we can finally share it as it's had the official Government Press Release today!! You'll need the Education version of Minecraft - which is free to download in various formats. The project is also free to download. CoastCraft places the player in the role of managing the coast and making decisions for the needs of the community and the environment. The player can explore and visualise the future impacts of the decisions made and evaluate varying approaches to managing the coast. CoastCraft is an educational game designed for students aged 9-14 (in England - Upper Primary Key stage 2 and lower secondary key stage 3.).  This game transports players to the coastal town of Bude in North Cornwall, modelled in Minecraft Education™ by BlockBuilders. Playing CoastCraft introduces students to the dynamic processes shaping coastal areas and challenges them to mak...

Quite good for a blog about a book that is now quite old... and available in limited quantities. Thanks for reading. 

  You have until the end of August to join in with the Slow Ways Crowdfunder to fund the next stage of development and get some benefits in return. Details are here. Where we’re coming from Thanks to thousands of people we’ve already created a Slow Ways national walking network with 140,000km of routes that connect all of Britain’s towns, cities and national landscapes. We’ve proven the idea. Now it’s time to take it to the next level. Where we’re going With your support we’ll help millions of people to find, follow and enjoy great routes that match their diverse interests and needs - making places more enjoyable and inclusive in the process. We'll make the network much bigger and better, add more ways of getting around, enable groups and organisations to share routes for communities and develop website and app to make it all happen. Slow Ways routes will always be publicly available and free for everyone to follow and enjoy. We’ll be introducing memberships for people and group...