"Look at it this way"

Out to Cley to speak to David North of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. He gave me a tour of the reserve, and the newly acquired land to the east: towards Salthouse. This is part of a long term plan to develop a Living Landscape. To find out more, pick up a copy of the  TERN  newsletter at any NWT reserve. We discussed the plans for the new Wildlife Trust Education Centre.

How did you celebrate it ?

Last night, there was a programme on BBC Radio 4 which was presented by Robert MacFarlane. It talked about the life and writing of Nan Shepherd, who wrote a book called ' The Living Mountain'. I used Nan Shepherd's book for the inspiration for a talk I gave at the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers' conference in 2013. Search the blog for all the details... Here's a description of the programme... Nan Shepherd believed that it was 'a grand thing to get leave to live.' She did this by spending every minute she could in her beloved Cairngorms. In her 88-years, she covered thousands of miles on foot and became minutely aware of the rhythms of these wild places. She collected her thoughts in 'The Living Mountain'. It's a remarkable love letter to these dramatic landscapes, but convinced that readers didn't want an "aimless, sensual exploration of the Cairngorms," Nan tucked the manuscript away in a drawer and left it th...

Apparently when scanned it reveals the Northern Lights... cool...

You've been watching the Detectorists I hope... Last night once again had Becky showing the power of a geography graduate....   Catch the series on iPlayer while you can... Wonderful evocation of landscape and the pull of the search for the past...

Started teaching my Year 7 Adventure Landscapes this month... plenty of Landscape stuff to come.... Got a small 'England in Particular' book from the library - focussing on journeys... The big book is one of the most useful to dip into for those exploring UK landscapes. Sometimes available in bargain book shops....

A good milestone for the blog, set up to support my KS3 toolkit book, but now also containing information from the teaching of our 'Adventure Landscapes' unit (and other related stuff) Thanks for stopping by...

Haiku Sheet to Print

Getting another run out on the Cheney Agility Toolkit. Always good to see how people get on with the idea and produce some variations on the original....

Geography Review magazine is one of the most useful resources that 6th form geographers (and GCSE students who want to push themselves) can have access to. It was started by my undergraduate tutor Tim Burt , his wife and colleagues back in 1986 , just after I finished my degree, and just before I started teaching in 1988. I was a subscriber from the start, and have used articles and ideas in my teaching ever since. I have paper copies of the first 15 volumes or so, and since then the school copies have taken over, and more recently, some electronic support materials to increase the usefulness of each issue. For example, check the extras for the September 2014 issue here.   Also the other recent issues. The magazine has now moved to Manchester , from Durham University, and has a new editorial board. There are the usual experienced authors writing for the magazine, and there's always something of interest in every issue. The first issue from the new team is now out. Details ...

Click for biggery... Tor taken last week on Dartmoor Characteristic of granite landscapes

Some great images from Ian Ward of the Norfolk coast taken from the air... Particularly like this one of Wells next the Sea - coming soon to a coastal resource near you... Copyright: Ian Ward - and used here with permission...

Working on a resource today for Digimap for Colleges , which launches later in the year. One aspect of it is the identification of limestone landscapes... How would you identify limestone landscapes on an OS map ? Image: Val Vannet

Yesterday, I visited the Tower of London , after a meeting in London earlier in the day. I wanted to see  'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' , the installation of poppies which is slowly filling the dry 'moat' at the Tower of London... Each poppy represents a casualty of the First World War, and when it is finally finished, there will be 888,246 of them. I have already pre-ordered mine, as a momento of an amazing artwork... and to support the related charities and the work that they do. This is an example of a place that is being 're-made' with the addition of a (temporary) art work. I've also been to other places that have been (re)presented in this way, such as the beach at Crosby, where Anthony Gormley's 'Another Place ' was installed (originally for a short time, but now permanently...) Where else is art changing the landscape, or the way that people view a building ? There are some obvious places of course... Images: Al...

In 1844, Hugh Miller : a geologist and preacher (amongst many other skills and abilities) embarked on a voyage through some of the islands of the Hebrides.  He was a self-taught geologist, writer and editor of a key Edinburgh newspaper in the lead up to the tectonic changes in the Scottish church that culminated in the Disruption of 1843. Miller was one of Scotland’s outstanding geologists, one of the first of many Scottish ‘citizen scientists’ and stands beside the greats of Hutton, Lyell and Murchison. The Cruise of the Betsey took place the year after the Disruption, when 450 ministers broke away from the Established Church. Miller joined his boyhood friend the Rev Swanson, a keen supporter of the Disruption, who had been removed from his Small Isles parish and his manse on Eigg. Swanson used the Betsey as his ‘floating manse’ so that he was still able to serve his parishioners. The cruise was to visit Tobermory, Eigg, Rum, Glenelg and Isle Ornsay on Skye. Miller’s account...

Thanks to Emily from Millgate House Education  for getting in touch about a new resource they have produced. It makes use of Concept Cartoons , which have previously been used for teaching a range of subjects, but this is the first time they have been used to teach Geography.  Concept Cartoons have been used successfully in classrooms internationally to teach maths, English and science.  We have recently started producing bespoke sets of Concept Cartoons focusing on smaller subject areas. Concept Cartoons encourage students to discuss their ideas in a real life context and often lead into individual or group investigations. They are particularly valuable for highlighting common misconceptions in learning. This new resource was developed to support students undertaking fieldwork on Talacre dunes   in North Wales, but is now being made more widely available... You can download a sample of the resource from the website to see whether it looks like it might b...

"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of country best..." Ernest Hemingway

For the last few days, the country has been focussing its attention on Yorkshire as the Tour de France has arrived for two stages. The countryside has been shown in bright sunshine, and the undulations of the landscape have started to test the riders. Familiar hills such as those at Holme Moss and around Bradfield on the edge of Sheffield will feature this afternoon. The commentators have talked about the dry stone walls, the industrial heritage and the canal and railway networks and also some of the Land Art that has been installed. Castle Hill in Huddersfield featured earlier. Also the mast at the top of Holme Moss, which I last walked to through a sea of mud from Crowden. I've also been there and seen the riders of the Tour of Britain come past me in the past...

"Paths are vital and subtle features of our landscapes. They connect places to places and they connect people to people." Robert MacFarlane, author of 'The Old Ways'

A new time-lapse video from Dan Ellison which is quite hard to watch, but makes a point about the nature and density of tree coverage in London.

A very useful resource for those teaching about the Norfolk Broads - a very special landscape.... Available from newsagents across East Anglia at the moment, and probably online too...

A great resource for students to explore... good lyrics to deconstruct and add some more verses, or write one in favour in the same style...

I'm enjoying exploring Maxim Griffin's quirky and colourful landscape images from his blog here. Particularly liked this one, which would be a great image for a book or feature on footpaths and travelling through the UK Image: Maxim Griffin - sourced from here Let me know if you'd like it removed..

“Our aim is to provide unbiased information about London's social, environmental and economic issues. “These maps are like fancy pie charts, and if something is twice the size of something else it is obvious. We just want to spark a debate about the differences in one big city.” Professor Danny Dorling London called me on Thursday this week, and I went down to the RGS to meet with Ben Hennig. Ben and I are working on some educational materials for a project called LondonMapper - a website which officially launched today , funded by the Trust for London. The educational materials are being funded by an Innovative Geography Teaching grant that we have been awarded by the Royal Geographical Society. Ben's maps will be familiar to many from his work on WorldMapper with Danny Dorling and others from Sheffield University. Ben now works at the University of Oxford , still with Danny Dorling , and LondonMapper is one of several exciting projects that he is workin...

A campaign is launched today which suggests an obvious move forward for our capital city: a designation as the country's newest National Park. We see no reason why London shouldn't join the Peak District, Snowdonia and the Norfolk Broads as having a designation as a National Park. The city has a breadth of habitats, and a diversity of wildlife that rival some of the existing parks. Check out the new WEBSITE to find out more. From the press release... The Greater London National Park* was launched today, celebrating the importance and diversity of London’s urban habitat. It may sound like an April fools joke, but it is not. It is only a “notional park” for now, but geographer Daniel Raven-Ellison is calling for the public to back the idea.“There is this idea that a National Park has to be remote and rural, but cities are incredibly important habitats too. An amazing 13,000 species of wildlife can be found in London’s open spaces which together make up 60% of t...

From the April 2014 issue of the New York Review of Books, an Elegy for a country's Changing Seasons, written by Zadie Smith Wonderful writing on the impact of climate change.... Image: Sunset, Sporle, Norfolk - Alan Parkinson

Interesting reading in the Telegraph , and also in the editorial about the importance of a 'sense of place' when developing a sense of drama...

Nepal says Mount Everest climbers must bring back 8kg of rubbish on descent, following concern http://t.co/bNOtLbFrNo pic.twitter.com/snFb6WycC5 — BBC News Asia (@BBCNewsAsia) March 4, 2014 An interesting point for discussion...  Good for units on Mountain landscapes...

I've been reading quite a bit about a man called Hugh Miller in the last few weeks. He was a geologist and storyteller and had a fascinating life. Now you have a chance to sail through the Scottish Highlands on a voyage of discovery... The voyage is being organised by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. The Geological Societies of Glasgow and Edinburgh are offering unique opportunity for young Earth scientists to follow the journey of Hugh Miller in "The Cruise of the Betsey". On 6 September 2014 Leader, a wonderful old Brixham Trawler built in 1892 ( www.trinitysailing.org/vessels/leader/ ), will set sail from Oban heading north for the Small Isles in a one-week voyage in homage to Hugh Miller and his Hebridean tours, described in his classic book "The Cruise of the Betsey". The boat sleeps 19 people including 4 crew members, and will be filled with an inter-generational mix of geologists, geographers, artists, writers, ecologists, storytellers and histor...

Author copies of my new book for Collins have just arrived. Aimed at KS2/3 boys to get them reading, but also readable by all age groups and girls too...

I'm about to head into a catch-up of the first three seasons of Game of Thrones , as the 4th season starts on Sky Atlantic. I don't have Sky, so this is my option for catching up with a lot of my colleagues... I've got a large poster map for my classroom wall, and a proposed unit on mapping of fictional landscapes, which will also form part of my presentation at the SAGT conference later in the year. There's also been a rise in tourism in Iceland and Northern Ireland: two of the key locations where the series is made. (Thanks to Rebekah Chew for the tipoff here) Iceland's tourist board says it's seen an increase in the number of people wanting to go on tours of locations where the show was shot. While, the film industry in Northern Ireland says it's helped increase employment in the area. But it's also helped spread the country's cinematic reputation around the world. Meanwhile I've got the first book on my Kindle, and am looking ...

A couple of years ago, my book ' The Ice Man' was published, telling the story of Otzi the Ice Man, whose body was found high up in the Alps following the melting of a glacier which had covered his body for millennia. The steady melting of ice cover in many locations around the world is revealing bodies that are sadly far younger than that... The most recent discovery was reported this morning in the Telegraph , and tells the story of Jonathan Conville, who disappeared on the Matterhorn in 1979. I wonder what other discoveries remain to be made as other ice masses melt away. Finally, don't forget that Matt Podbury is developing a nice scheme based on my book.

The Spring 2014 issue of ' Primary Geography ' is on the theme of Landscapes.  Plenty of rather fine articles from excellent primary practitioners...

Over the Christmas holiday, the Pole of Cold team were making their way towards Oymyakon : the Pole of Cold (coldest inhabited place in the Northern Hemisphere) I've blogged about the project before, which has its Twitter feed and Facebook page. Meanwhile I was a little closer to home... in fact I was at home, working on a resource for the From the Field section of the Royal Geographical Society website. These resources are now live on the KS4 From the Field section of the RGS website. Check them out here: 3 lesson plans with all the materials , plus plenty of extension ideas and other materials, with more to come... Thanks to Matt Podbury for some kind words already. Let me know if you use them or take a look.

Really useful post and resource for those teaching Primary Geography . A new set of characters called the Go Jetters who teach young people about key geographical ideas. Geography helps children to make sense of their world. Very young children are naturally curious, and they love to actively explore the world around them, noticing all kinds of detail. That’s why they need to develop geographical vocabulary like the names of places, people and things, and the words needed to describe and locate them. It helps to think of children as little geographers – they each have their own world of private geographies  - the places they name for themselves with meanings that only they understand: the dens where they hide out with their friends, special meeting places in the school playground. Whether they’re playing in the back garden, or splashing through a muddy puddle on the way to school, children are intrepid explorers making new (to them) discoveries about the world every sing...

My latest childrens' book:

Just purchased Concretopia on Kindle for just £1.49... bargain...