"Look at it this way"

I've mentioned this blog before , but there have been some excellent recent additions which explore some aspects of local landscapes, and have given me some inspiration for recent writing and thinking about place. It describes itself as offering: Hidden places, secret histories and unsung geography from the east of England and beyond Follow Laurence Mitchell on Twitter too

Now this is JUST my sort of thing...

This was the title of my KS3 Landscapes Toolkit book on Landscapes. A few copies are still left, and you can buy one from the GA website. A view is something which can add so much to a person's well being, and also add value to a property: a view of the sea adds tens of thousands to the value of a house for example. This article describes the potential damaging of a view of London that has been in existence for hundreds of years, and which was thought to be protected: a view of St. Paul's Cathedral. If one goes to the top of the new Tate Modern extension , one can see a wonderful view across to the Cathedral. But you can also see the proliferation of tall buildings, some of which are not to everyone's taste. There are some views of St. Pauls Cathedral, the Monument, Tower of London and other buildings which can't be blocked as they are protected. The views and directions can be seen on this map, and there's also an interactive version on the link above.

An article in the Independent on the UK's natural wonders. "It's geology that has created our diverse and extraordinary natural wonders. We owe the creation of vertiginous cliffs and sea stacks to deposits of sandstone and chalk; soft limestone has been etched and scoured to carve craggy gorges, coastal arches and echoing caverns; and sculpted from extrusions of volcanic basalt are the weirdly geometric columns of causeways and sea caves".

A few months ago, I was asked to write an article on the visit that Shailey Minocha and colleague Ana from the Open University, as part of their work with Google Expeditions. I submitted the article and forgot about it. It's now available to view online as it's been published in the latest issue of 'Independent Education Today' Alan Parkinson @Kings_Ely discusses whether #virtualreality can improve #students ' questioning https://t.co/Q7ZWV3W9nd #GoogleExpeditions pic.twitter.com/iAfEtN4Rul — IE Today (@IE_Today) January 3, 2017 They got my job title a little wrong, but otherwise the article was just about as I wrote it.

For those interested in landscapes, this book is recommended... More to come on this as I get further into it, and start to use it for curriculum making...