"Look at it this way"

Lovely to see the story that went into creating the newly redesigned  Scottish banknotes featuring Nan Shepherd. She was someone who has inspired a great many writers with her tales of the Cairngorms. A few years ago, I used Nan's book, and Robert MacFarlane's description of walking in her footsteps in 'The Old Ways' as the basis for a workshop at the Scottish Association of Geography Teacher's conference. Access the resources here. You can see the story of the notes here:

I liked this piece by Kristina Olsson, on the Coast to Coast Walk that she did as a 'reward' for spending five years writing her book. She needed to get away, and in doing so found out something about herself... This theme of getting outside is something I shall be exploring more of in the year to come. I'm freshly back from two days in the New Forest with Ordnance Survey . We were asked to come to Brockenhurst to a nice hotel, where we were to meet with the Ordnance Survey team that supports their core #GetOutside initiative. As you may remember from an earlier post, I applied to be involved for 2018/19 and was delighted to find out some weeks ago that I was going to be taking part, and also that Dan Raven Ellison , who applied independently, was also going to be going along. A very early start and a long journey on 4 trains was needed, with Dan joining me in London. Registration, coffee, and some chats to faces that I knew, including Sarah Outen. Through to th...

Over the last few years, I've written a number of Secondary resources to accompany the Digimap for Schools service . My colleague Paula Owens wrote a whole tranche of Primary resources too. The resource area has now had a revamp so that it is easier to access particular resources from the archive. Big Splash! Our new Resources pages is now live! Lots of resources for Primary and Secondary.. we love it! come have a look.. https://t.co/VBWTyFmic4 #primary #secondary #PrimarySTEMchat #ukedchat #geographyteacher #STEM #digitalliteracy pic.twitter.com/YvU7vBL8Mz — DigimapforSchools (@Digimap4Schools) January 22, 2018 The new look page can be accessed HERE. It has resources for a range of subjects, not just geography, which is a reminder that if you are thinking of getting a subscription for your school, you should make a point that it is not just for geography, and have it paid from general budgets rather than your own budget...

I'm finally able to announce something which I've had to keep to myself for the last 7 weeks or so... Back in October 2017,  I put in a speculative application to join an illustrious group of people who are selected each year to work with the wonderful folks at the  Ordnance Survey to encourage people to # GetOutside and enjoy exploring the amazing variety of countryside that we have in our country (possibly guided with a classic Ordnance Survey map in paper or digital form). In early December, I received the following e-mail: There were almost  500  applications last year apparently,  and the final list for 2017 included a fair few adventurers, explorers and people who spend their lives in the outdoors, and many of whom are known to millions through their media work.  This included Ben Fogle, Sean Conway, Kenton Cool,  Jason Rawles (founder of the Adventurers' Club), and the amazing Sarah Outen. There were also people who share particula...

OK, I admit, I have a book problem. I could easily have bought many more books over the last few weeks including one on the villages of the East Coast which have been lost to the sea. .. I had a delivery of Nomadland last week, and then went on to devour the first part of it. I'd read a lot about the new book by Tom Cox , which came into being thanks to Unbound. It's about the landscape (one of my latest preoccupations) and also features SW Devon and Norfolk - two areas I know very well. Reading the first chapter, I could visualise the places Tom was describing having visited them, or driven past them many times. The idea of exploring and getting to know your local area is something that will be a theme for some of my work in 2018, and this book has plenty to say about that...

I'm in the middle of the annual piece of work exploring 'The Ridge' and Danny MacAskill's film cum ad for Red Bell...   A new campaign by the BMC targets our mountains , and is trying to raise one million to improve the nation's mountains. There's a useful video here showing the background to the campaign.

For Remembrance Sunday, a reminder of how war changes landscapes as well as lives... Château Wood (during the Battle of Passchendaele), 29th of October, 1917. Photo by Frank Hurley. pic.twitter.com/exUwXRoaX8 — Darran Anderson (@Oniropolis) November 12, 2017