"Look at it this way"

Nick Crane series just started. Some interesting content, if nothing new to a seasoned geographer... The supporting website , in association with the OU has links to a range of useful additional detail. Order your FREE BOOKLET Also check out the opportunity to RUN YOUR OWN TOWN.  This is a decision making interactive where you get to run a town and make important choices...

Spending a few days barn & dog-sitting in a rather fine barn in the Dartmoor National Park . It's stocked with shelves full of books, WiFi for Spotify and a wine cellar... So it's got pretty much all I need. One of the books is Ian Mercer's 'Dartmoor' , which is published as part of the Collins New Naturalist Library with a lovely cover by Robert Gillmor. I liked the description of Ian Mercer as "a geographer and naturalist at heart, never happier than when revealing the secrets of a landscape". The author's foreword begins: "This book is about my perception of a landscape, and what knowledge is needed as a foundation to that perception..." which is an interesting statement, as it links with some of the ideas in the GA's current  CURRICULUM consultation. He goes on to say "the attraction of true local geography is that it depends upon the wielding of a broad brush much of the time, but allows the display of intricate det...

"A landscape is the function of structure, process and time" W. M. Davis, 1884

On the GA Ning, there's a posting from Stephen Savage, who works at Shoreham Beach  Local Nature Reserve. Since the beach became a nature reserve in 2006, I have been developing an education programme focusing on natural history, coastal geography and maritime history. Shoreham Beach LNR is a shingle spit with rare vegetated shingle habitat. In fact it was designated a nature reserve to help protect this local and globally rare habitat. The eastern end of the shingle spit forms the harbour entrance, with the Downs to the north and the chalk cliffs and wave cut platform further east at Brighton. Longshore drift deflected the river to the west, in the process creating the shingle spit which is now Shoreham Beach. We have worked with a number of local primary and secondary schools, providing on-site and outreach sessions and worked to develop links with these schools to provide feedback and suggestions for future development. One area we are planning to develop further is a...

There's a new Richard Long exhibition at the Haunch of Venison in London. I am in London next week and will make time to go and see it. Seen Richard Long's work in a range of locations over the years: from the Guggenheim in Bilbao to the foyer of DEFRA on Millbank, and various other places... An artist who very much connects with the landscape. I used a set of Richard Long postcards as a resource for a literacy exercise, and the way that his works link with mapping is also wonderful. Last exhibition I saw was 'Heaven and Earth' at Tate Britain in 2009, so I am overdue some more Long work....

All schools that lie within the newly designated South Downs National Park will soon receive an education pack which was put together by the Geographical Association . It features a range of activities to explore the geography of the National Park, and the idea of landscape as a palimpsest ... It matches nicely with some of the ideas in my KS3 Toolkit: "Look at it this Way" , which is available from the GA's online shop . The pack will also be available to download from the South Downs website from Monday 16th of May....

My KS3 toolkit book "Look at it this Way" has a lesson looking at the "yellowing" of the countryside through increased planting of oilseed rape. This year, the countryside is turning yellower than ever. There has been rising demand for oilseed compared with cereals, and a growing market for the oil. This means that a larger area has been planted, and the warm, dry weather in April has not damaged the crop as much as it has other crops... I was listening to Farming Today on the way up to Sheffield today and happened to be passing a large expanse of yellow at the time. You can LISTEN AGAIN to the programme... Another bonus of the warm weather in April is that English Strawberries will be ready earlier than usual, and be particularly sweet this year...