Guardian Country Diary

Image by Alan Parkinson

A great source of writing about the landscape and our relationship with it can be found daily in the Guardian's COUNTRY DIARY column, which has been going for over 100 years.

These are also available in an ONLINE ARCHIVE, which has over 3000 entries.

As a taster for how good these are, I read a small section of some recent entries at the Suffolk Literacy session I have blogged about earlier on this blog.

There are 2 recent entries: one on the Lake District by Tony Greenbank, and one on Wenlock Edge by Paul Evans, which were written at the time of the Cumbrian floods.

The Paul Evans diary entry has a wonderful description to start it off:

"It's raining.

There's a saturation point where the soil can't hold any more water and turns to gravy.

We're past that.

There's a point where boots and jackets that were once waterproof let you know they are no longer.

We're past that.

There's a kind of equilibrium, where the amount of water in the environment seems equal to the amount of water in your own body.

We're past that tipping point too....."

Wonderful writing...

Comments

Making Space for Sand

Making Space for Sand is a project I was made aware of recently. The ‘Building Community Resilience on a Dynamic Coastline by Making Space for Sand’ project (also known as Making Space for Sand or MS4S) is one of 25 national projects funded by DEFRA as part of the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme (FCRIP). The programme will drive innovation in flood and coastal resilience and adaptation to a changing climate. The project website has an excellent section outlining the formation of Sand Dunes, particularly within the located context of Cornwall. Sand Dunes are an important part of the coastal defences in the locations where they are found. I am particularly familiar with the dunes on the North Norfolk Coast at places like Holkham. I've previously carried out fieldwork on those dunes with both GCSE and 'A' level students, and also Atkins has provided GIS support and created some visualisations of future landscapes.

Landscape in a Box - more student examples

Thanks to Jack Marsh for sending me some examples of 'landscapes in a box '. Landscapes in a box is one of the ideas that seems to have gone down the best of the things that I've shared over the years. The basic idea is to create a landscape within a box, perhaps a burger box (but could also be a shoe box) This was featured in 'Teaching Geography' in 2009. Jack used the activity with his groups, and has sent me three excellent images of contrasting images from the students: an Antarctic scene, New York's Central Park, and Paris... Outstanding work !! If you've used Landscape in a Box, why not share your students' work too...

Landscape inspiration

I take a great deal of pleasure from the images shared by Henry Rothwell. This is a wonderful image by Jane Madgwick. 'Downland Storm', Jane Madgwick, mixed media, 2017. pic.twitter.com/xgz3k3l3PR — Henry Rothwell (@HenryRothwell) October 15, 2022

"Look at it this way"

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