"Look at it this way"

....actually they aren't... but the container in which they are stored has arrived from China at Felixstowe according to my colleague Paul, and the next phase is for them to go through customs, and then be dispatched to the GA.. so expect them sometime in the next few weeks. Will let you know when I finally have my hands on them...

Have mentioned the SOME LANDSCAPES blog before, and if you are teaching about landscapes this is worth adding to your FOLLOW list. The AUTUMN LEAVES sound site is rather good.

Regular readers of the blog may remember some recent posts on the idea of LANDSCAPE CHARACTER. Came across an old map when sorting through some stuff in the loft at the weekend which showed the whole of the UK split into different areas. On it was a website, which turned out to be out of date, but did lead me to the Countryside Quality Counts website. Some useful resources here for exploring local landscape change...

One aspect of the book is a look at TRAVEL WRITING. There was a good article on the future of the genre in Saturday's Guardian . A few good quotes from the piece, from two of my favourite authors: "A good travel writer can give you the warp and weft of everyday life, the generalities of people's existence that are rarely reflected in journalism, and hardly touched on by any other discipline. Despite the internet and the revolution in communications, there is still no substitute." Colin Thubron "Old travellers grumpily complain that travel is now dead and that the world is a suburb. They are quite wrong. Lulled by familiar resemblances between all the unimportant things, they meet the brute differences in everything of importance." Jonathan Raban

A nice idea taken from a FLICKR GALLERY by user Kristal A landcape made from a series of images for sky, horizon and foreground. Similar to the activity in the book looking at images as a mosaic a la Rolf Harris.

Got a copy of this document on Monday night via the Norfolk Coast Partnership It's the proposed plan for 2009-2014. It includes some useful sections on landscape , and something called landscape character . The whole of the Norfolk coast has been split into sections which have a particular character. I live on the border of the North Norfolk AONB: Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which then extends all along the coast from my village. What is Landscape character ? Put simply, landscape character is what makes an area unique. It is defined as "a distinct, recognisable and consistent pattern of elements, be it natural (soil, landform) and/or human (for example settlement and development) in the landscape that makes one landscape different from another, rather than better or worse". Natural England have a range of landscape character resources on their website. One activity that could be tried would be to come up with some new types of landscape character for the area a...

The Ordnance Survey are sending their free maps into schools once againthis term. Make sure you have registered to receive yours. This year, in addition to the usual maps, stickers, map skills guide etc. there will be a 12 page booklet produced with Natural England. Natural England website now has all the resources. You can read about the scheme, and the booklet, which is called "The language of landscape" is available to download as a PDF. The booklet is accompanied by a series of other PDF downloads to support the activities, which could contribute up to 4 lessons to a Year 7 Scheme of Work, such as these fab ACTIVITY CARDS (PDF download) Thanks to Mark Jones and Val Vannet, and also to Ian Gilbert for inspiration for part of this resource. Those credits didn't make it into the final document... If you use this, please let me know what you thought of it, how it went, whether you invented some other activities etc. Also send any pictures of work that grows out of ...