Thought for the Day

"Once you homogenise a landscape in the way that we see across large parts of central England, you not only lose the wildlife, you rob its inhabitants of the elements that make up their identity. The antiseptic uniformity of many English high streets is part analogue, part consequence of the surrounding countryside's wider sterilisation."

From Mark Cocker's review of 'England in Particular' (Common Ground)

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Coastwise in North Norfolk

One of our local papers had a story on a project called Coastwise. There is more detail on the project here. A video explaining the scheme, which is described as a coastal transition. Over the next 100 years, it is predicted that over 1,000 homes will be lost to erosion in North Norfolk. Erosion will impact whole communities by threatening businesses, roads, footpaths, and utilities such as sewage, water and electricity. It will also affect our wellbeing, beach access and heritage assets such as churches, lighthouses, listed buildings, and much more. The consequences of erosion are profound and require advanced planning to transition to being more prepared. Coastwise will involve working together in North Norfolk to develop nationally useful practical actions, plans and policy, funding and finance options. Action needs to be taken now to explore how local authorities, communities, individuals, and national government can best work together to prepare and plan for coastal erosion. Th

Robert MacFarlane in the Cuillins

Starting later today is a new two part series on the Cuillin Hills of Skye . It is presented by Robert MacFarlane. It will, of course, be excellent, especially given the involvement of the three musicians that he mentions here. Hello––I made a two-part @BBCRadio4 programme abt Skye's Cuillin Ridge, all recorded in situ. First ep goes out this Tuesday at 16.00hrs. Would love it to find ears! Prod by @HelenNeedham , w/ a new song by @juliefowlis , @DuncanWChisholm , @ShawDonald & me. https://t.co/9ReravY19T — Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) September 18, 2023 In this two part series, we accompany the writer and mountaineer Robert Macfarlane on his attempt to complete the Cuillin Ridge. This expedition marks twenty years since his first book 'Mountains of the Mind' in which he tries to understand the human fascination with mountains. Along the way, he muses on the ways in which these particular mountains have been explored imaginatively and in reality. The reality fo

AQA Pre-release 2022

I was told yesterday that the AQA GCSE pre-release material for the 2022 summer exam season was based in / or mentioned Ely , so I asked for a copy and discovered that it was based on an application by Amey to add an incinerator to their existing waste management park near Waterbeach / Denny Abbey to the south of Ely, along the A10. The scheme was controversial, although the benefits were clearly stated by the company. A protest group was set up, and commissioned a report on the impact of the proposal, which included mention of the chimney which would be taller than Ely Cathedral and spoil the view towards it from Madingley (a place of geographical significance). Interestingly, for a pre-release where students usually have to weigh up whether a planned development should go ahead, the decision has already been made in that the scheme was .... spoiler alert .... turned down in 2020. I tried to add some local contexts - newspaper articles, campaign group reports, local landscape char

"Look at it this way"

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