"Look at it this way"

Another small milestone for another one of my blogs... closing in on 200 000 page views too. A reminder that this blog was set up to support and add additional details to those teaching about landscapes, and in particular the Distinctive Landscapes topic of the OCR 'B' specification. The book is probably a little out of date now if I'm honest, and some of the ideas that were originally 'brand new' have since become common, or been appropriated by others... but it's still worth a look. Still available for purchase.

As National Parks turn 75, a new report highlights only 6% of their land is recorded as being in good health for nature - with the Yorkshire Dales having less tree cover than York and waterways across these special places heavily polluted by sewage released from storm overflows. pic.twitter.com/efHAHoGqdj — Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) April 9, 2024 Biodiversity: just 6% of national park land in England and Wales is being managed effectively for nature, say campaigners. https://t.co/tZ620wBL99 — Brian Groom (@GroomB) April 9, 2024 Here's one of my images of the Peak District... near Strines Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license on Flickr.

Back in the 1980s, isostatic rebound was very much part of my 'A' level teaching, with a bit of eustatic adjustment thrown in for good measure.  The idea was that as glacial periods ended, the melting of thick ice sheets released pressure on the ground, to the extent that the ground started to rebound and rise up again. This story explores research into the possible impact of a river on the world's highest mountain. Connections and geomorphology explored in an interesting story.

  I was sorry to hear this evening of the passing of Norman Ackroyd on Monday: one of our very greatest landscape artists. He was a remarkable printmaker and artist . He shared the laborious process of making his etchings in several documentaries. Listen to this programme with Robert MacFarlane. RIP the great artist Norman Ackroyd (1938-16.09.24): etcher-magician who conjured weather & light from metal & acid; his work constitutes one of the great visual records of this archipelago’s edges. We travelled together—& I made this programme with him: https://t.co/Y5licHxpcP pic.twitter.com/8bQDR95Fph — Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) September 18, 2024 Here's the first part of a documentary on his method featuring some of his art...

A new(ish) resource which can be accessed and used by members of the Geographical Association. I am considering adding a section of this to my teaching this year. Sycamore Gap is a significant landmark in Northumberland where three distinct features combined: a natural and dramatic dip in the physical landscape about halfway along the 80-mile run of Hadrian’s Wall, itself an ancient monument and reminder of the power of the Roman Empire, and until recently, a lone, 300-year-old Sycamore tree. The site has UNESCO designation and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Arguably, it will still be known as Sycamore Gap because of its story. The tree has stood for hundreds of years, perfectly framed by the landscape, thrilling locals and visitors alike until it was deliberately cut down, under cover of darkness, sometime between the evening of 27 September 2023 and the following morning.  The loss of the tree has caused an outcry and reaction of public grief. These materials are designed to help

  A cross-posting from my relatively new blog: 'At the Home of Geography'.   This is a blog to share work around my work as Vice President:Education of the Royal Geographical Society. The GA's Fieldwork Festival during June has ended, but fieldwork can carry on at any time of course, and we hope that your summer travels may well involve some 'fieldtrips' AKA family holidays, or personal travels. These may be in the local area or further afield. Check out the detailed page on the RGS website which contains a wealth of resources for those planning fieldwork. One issue for teachers when consultations take place is to have ideas for fieldwork which are low cost (ideally free) and can be carried out in the local area. In terms of having ideas for fieldwork. The sharing of ideas in this area are particularly helpful. The RGS has added a useful form to their website. The form can be used to tell us about the fieldwork that you are undertaking, and help share examples of f

Useful new resource for coasts Some new resources from Anthony at Internet Geography. These were filmed recently at Mappleton: a popular case study for coastal erosion and management. New footage featuring coastal erosion and mass movement at Mappleton on the Holderness Coast: https://t.co/BZQQxyBOAi #geographyteacher — internetgeography.net 🌍 (@InternetGeog) July 16, 2024 Some new YouTube footage is shared here.  Subscribe to Internet Geography to explore more of what Anthony has produced.

Thanks for reading. The landscape is always changing, and there's always plenty to write about...

The Coastal Erosion figures from Yorkshire are important,

There was good news for walkers this week with the opening of a new stretch of a proposed path which will run right around the coast of Britain.  This is an area that has been out of bounds for years, as it runs through the Sandringham Estate. I lived in Snettisham for twelve years, and was often frustrated that at Wolferton the path petered out and came well inland away from the coast. It was featured in the local paper, the EDP, and also on BBC News.  I look forward to following the path this coming summer to give it a go. I've been down to Peter Scott's lighthouse many times and followed the path for part of the way, but it was always incomplete between King's Lynn and Heacham. The trail is rather remote as it leaves King's Lynn... all the way to Snettisham. You'll want the wind behind you as well...  The trail website is here.

Flat places seem hardly to count as places. They’re just the gaps between landmarks. If people think about flatlands at all, it’s usually to call them boring. Nothing to look at, nothing to focus on, no hidden places to discover. To be flat is to be dull: a cut-and-dried equation. I've got a copy of 'A Flat Place' by Noreen Massud. Check out the GeoLibrary for some more. She contributed a piece to The Guardian's feature on holidays to explain why she likes to visit flat places. There's some excellent descriptions of the value of flatness and why other places leave her cold and anxious. Excellent for units exploring the distinctive landscape of this area, and the value of flatness in areas such as the Somerset Levels and elsewhere. Can I also recommend that you subscribe to Drew's Fenland on Film YouTube channel. Drew does fantastic work collating, sharing and restoring films about the Fens and places such as Ely. Here's one of his latest projects: a restor

  In the 1980s, my geography teacher and one of my lecturers collaborated on coding a simple hillslope model which looked at runoff on a hillslope. It was made available as an early piece of software for purchase and reviewed in TG at the time. I wrote about it here. It was for sale at the time - for use on the BBC B computer. The TG description is shown here. A post from Dr. Chris Skinner led me to a modern take on this theme. A group of people led by Dai Yamazaki have been coding a model for the movement of water down and through a hillslope using Scratch and have made the code available. There's a close link with the model from the 1980s.... I had a copy. You can tinker with the code as well. If I had a little more time I'd give this a go. New paper is out. We develop a rainfall-runoff model using educational programming language Scratch, and make it playable as a game. We found through a workshop that learning through game helps to more deeply understand flood mechanism.

  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.