Organic Food

This is one of the subjects on your Pilot GCSE exam this year.
What is organic farming ?
Why is organic produce more expensive than non-organic ?
How much of a market share does organic food have ?
Is buying organic better for the planet ?
Is organic food better for your health ?
Do your family buy organic food ? If so, why ? If not, why not ?


A BBC news item here to get you started with your reading...
Also the SOIL ASSOCIATION website.

Extra Time

Remember that we need to have the coursework finished and handed in by next Tuesday the 8th of May!
We will be putting on some extra time to get coursework printed out and sorted.
Ask your teachers about the extra time.
If you're reading this, for example, I'll be staying behind on TUESDAY the 1st of MAY to allow you to do some more on your coursework.
More on this tomorrow.

Also, Mrs. Clarke's group - remember that you are missing your lesson on Monday 7th of May for May Day Bank Holiday !

Pre-Release materials (Cont.)

Hi everyone!
I hope KES Pilot students are reading as requested. You now have 2 MONTHS to go to the exam!
Remember that over 3 weeks of that are taken out by EXAMS, HALF TERM and WORK EXPERIENCE, and that you are going to have to do a lot of self-guided work (with the aid of the materials that we will give you, during your Work Experience time - and read a daily suggestion for some small task to do to familiarise yourself with the booklet...)
Thanks to Phil Wood for sending the materials that he had produced for 2005 and 2006. They form an excellent basis to work on for 2007 !

The year 10 work will contribute up to 50% towards your final mark, and it's important to get as many marks as possible (obviously!)
The other 50% should (theoretically) be easier to get, and this is why results on the Pilot GCSE have tended to be slightly higher than the more traditional specifications.

Remember that YOU have a part to play in the result too.
The PRIORITY for the next 2 weeks is to finish off and hand in the remaining coursework so that Mrs. Clarke and I can finish our marking and moderation and ensure that you get as much credit as possible for your hard work !

Good luck in the other Year 10 exams this week, but remember that the GEOGRAPHY exam in June is the REAL THING !!

Also check out Tony Cassidy's blog for an interesting MONOPOLY post, and some stuff on the Kent Earthquake (which also features on GeographyPages as you'd expect...)

QUESTIONNAIRE

The questionnaire that we produced is now available to download from HERE.
Remember there will be questionnaires in the registers on Monday, or you can collect some from B3 from me directly....
Happy Questionnairing !!!

Questionnaire for data collection

OK, so you need to have looked at this and on Monday, collect copies of the questionnaire either from the Geography room (B3) or from your register. Each person needs to complete at least 6 and preferably about 10 questionnaires. You can also download from GeographyPages

The questionnaire is below: the formatting of the blog means that the little boxes to tick for the answer that is given by the respondee....

KES GEOGRAPHY PILOT QUESTIONNAIRE

CONSUMPTION PATTERNS : FOOD

1. Which year group are you in ? (TICK)

Year 7 ¨ Year 8 ¨ Year 9 ¨ Year 10 ¨ Year 11 ¨ 6^th Form ¨ Male ¨ Female ¨

2. Where do you do your most of your food shopping ?

Local specialist shops ¨ Supermarkets ¨ Shops in the town centre ¨

3. Which supermarket do you mostly use ?

Tesco ¨ Sainsbury’s ¨ Morrisons ¨ Rainbow ¨ Waitrose ¨

Lidl ¨ Aldi ¨ Netto ¨ Iceland ¨ Other ¨

4. Why do you use this particular supermarket ? (tick any that apply)

¨ Loyalty Card ¨ Value for money

¨ Café / other shops ¨ Distance from home

¨ No reason ¨ Other: _______________________

5. How often do you shop for food ?

One big weekly shop ¨ One big weekly shop with top-ups from a local shop ¨

When I run out of food ¨ Daily¨

6. How do you get your shopping home / get to the shop ?

Car ¨ Bus ¨ Taxi ¨ Walk ¨ Delivered (Internet) ¨

7. (Option)

Have you ever considered Internet shopping ? Why / Why not ?

8. Who does the shopping in your family ?

Same parent most weeks ¨ Different family members ¨ Whole family ¨

9. Consumer Choices – do you choose any of the following ?

¨ Organic Food

¨ Fairtrade products

¨ Local products rather than those which are not local

¨ Healthy options (Low fat, low sugar, allergy, Gluten free)

10. What do you understand by the term FOOD MILES ?

Produced by Year 10 Pilot Group

Just a number to make you think...

To buy a PC costing £681 using Computers for Schools tokens from Tesco, you would need to spend £379 000 in store according to today's Education Guardian....

GA Conference Materials

Materials from the workshop I led at the conference are now up for you to download...
Also check this out....
For those teachers perhaps who want more on Sustainable Communities and the future, check out the website of the GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION, where materials relating to many of the workshops are now being placed online.
One of the sessions was run by Angus Willson, who I have mentioned before on the blog. He works with the Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC) and his workshop was related to building communities which are SUSTAINABLE (one of our 5 FUGIS themes)
Below is a diagram representing the likely make up of such a community.
The notes and handout make interesting reading, and some good STARTER images on the slides of the powerpoint, such as the one below, which could be used when exploring changing CONSUMER LANDSCAPES

Questionnaire ideas

We need to be exploring the ideas of:
Uneven Development
Globalisation

So key ideas to explore:

• Why do people buy what they do ?
• Do people consider the consequences of their choices for other people ?
• What about the organic / non-organic debate ?
• Do people consider how the way they get to the shops impacts on the environment ?
• Do people use online shopping ? What are the pros and cons of this ?
• What about particular items which have an environmental impact ?
• Are people swayed by advertising ?

Now turn these into questions: some CLOSED (yes / no answers), some OPEN (What do you think about ..... ?)

We need to think about how we are going to SAMPLE so that we get some Year 7 through to Year 13...

More on this on Friday...

In the meantime, you MUST go and read TONY CASSIDY's recent posts on shops and out of town shopping centres...

Old UK Photos

LittleMiss from SLN Geography put me onto this site: OLD UK PHOTOS, which does what it says on the tin: it has lots of photos, which are of the UK, and are old...
Here's a good one of Hunstanton from the pier. What changes do you notice between then and today ?
Here's a starter for you. Could you take a picture from the same spot today to compare ?

Picture Copyright OldUKPhotos 2006 (and the original postcard producer presumably too...)

St George's Day

Remember that we are exploring notions of BRITISHNESS in MY PLACE and today is St. George's Day.
Here's a relevant sort of image which Mrs. P took while down in Devon over Easter. And yes, I know it's not the cross of St. George...

300 posts...

Tony Cassidy has just clocked up 500 posts on the RADICAL GEOGRAPHY weblog. I'm lagging a bit (aren't I always...) but still notched up my 3rd century today.
How many of those 300 have YOU read ?

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - 25 years old

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - 25 years old, originally uploaded by goron.

Just blogging this Flickr image via FLICKR, which reminds me that I had one of these 25 years ago !
Also had a ZX80 even earlier than that...
Kids today, with their Nintendo DS - they don't know they're born...

3rd Piece of Coursework

Once again, I need to publicly state my gratitude to Paula Cooper, and other colleagues at King Edward VI 5 Ways School for their generosity in sharing their assessment for People as Consumers via the GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION website.
I have adapted this for KES pupils, and added / subtracted as necessary to meet the constraints of time, and the slightly different slant that we have placed on the topic, and the terminology used with the students.
The final deadline for having ALL THREE pieces of coursework with myself or Mrs. Clarke is

Pilot GCSE: People as Consumers : Year 10 Coursework instructions

What are the consumption patterns of pupils at KES

What are the spatial consequences of this consumption ?

In this coursework your job is to answer these BIG questions. You should work through the following stages to answer the questions. To start with you may work with the class, then in groups and eventually individually. However, be prepared to bring in your own original ideas at any time as this can earn you mega-marks!

Before you start, make sure that you understand the meaning of ‘consumption’ and ‘consumption patterns’ and ‘spatial consequences’. Read the weblog for more detail.

STAGE 1 (done over Easter)

a) Design and administer a questionnaire to find out about the consumption by KES pupils.

b) Carry out a very short piece of primary data collection of your very own (Ideas! Interview a family member or one or more class mates).

c) Write a brief justification of the questionnaire and your own data collection (Why did we ask the questions we did? Why did we ask some but not all pupils? How did we choose the ones to ask? What type of questions did we ask? What data collection did you choose and why?) – this needs to be done if you have not already done it…

WE WILL THEN SPEND SOME TIME THIS WEEK COLLECTING DATA ON A QUESTIONNAIRE

STAGE 2 (to be done in the computer lesson next week)

a) Work in groups to collate the raw primary data from the questionnaires.

b) Present this data in graphical form. (To gain top marks try to: Use three different types of graph for three different questions or types of data. Use ICT to present the graphs and data).

c) Write a brief description of, and comment on, what the graphs show about pupil consumption and possible consequences – OR BETTER STILL! – annotate the graphs to make them into LIVING GRAPHS.

Your teacher will explain this last step. It is a way of annotating graphs to make them more relevant to the data they are showing.

STAGE 3 (to be done in the computer lesson in 2 weeks time – or before)

This will be completed under exam conditions in one lesson.

a) Use annotation, colour shading, symbols and arrows to show the possible ‘geographical reach’ or in other words, the spatial consequences/impacts of the pupil consumption patterns that you have discovered.

b) You could focus on showing the consequences suggested by one of your graphs or of one of the questions, or you could try to show a range of consequences of pupil consumption.

c) You may use the base maps provided or you may design your own ‘impacts web’. The base maps will be given to you next week, but they are basically a choice of map of either the UK, Europe or the World, on different scales.

YOU SHOULD HAND IN THREE ITEMS AS YOUR FINAL COURSEWORK – ON OR BEFORE THE 8^th of MAY

1) Brief written justification of the primary data collection methods (see Stage 1 Part c).

2) Graphs with brief written comment, to show your findings (see Stage 2 Parts b and c).

3) Annotated maps or ‘impacts web’ to show the Geographical Reach of the consumption of KES pupils. This relates to the places which your consumption reaches or affects.

HOW TO BE BRILLIANT …..

Try to show you understand these key concepts, use these words as often and as appropriately as you can.

• Uneven development
• Interdependence
• Globalisation
• Impacts of our actions

Aim to achieve work that matches these descriptions:

• Select and use more complex and appropriate skills, approaches and techniques to collect and analyse primary data and questions/issues with little guidance (i.e. use a number of types of graph and diagram appropriately, design your own data collection method well).
• Clearly communicate with a good understanding of the intended audience (i.e. use good and detailed annotation and map techniques).
• Make selective and appropriate use of ICT information sources and systems (do some graphs using Excel, use ICT to organise information, use the internet to find helpful information).

Pre Release Materials arrived in school !

As you know, we have an exam on June 28th (you DID know that didn't you....)

The PRE RELEASE materials have now been received in school, and we will be spending some lesson time looking at these, and also giving you a workbook to take you through them during the time that you are on work experience. We will be giving you a photocopy of the booklet for you to annotate over the next 8 weeks, and you will then have a clean copy in the exam (we will also be using the originals in lessons, as the maps and other resources are in colour, and you can't work as easily from a photocopy.

This will all be explained in the next Pilot GCSE lesson you have.

The booklet has a theme related primarily to MY PLACE, but there are some other sections relating to EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS and PEOPLE AS CONSUMERS, which is what we were expecting. These will be less important than getting to grips with the content of the booklet.

The booklet is quite a chunky piece of work, and has a context in a survey being carried out by a Year 10 class in Gloucester.
It has a series of sections, and we will be putting up a series of posts which contain activities which we think might be useful to complete when preparing yourself for the exam. I will also be going to a meeting of the other schools in Norfolk which do the Pilot where we will take a look at the booklet and suggest some possible questions or approaches to questioning based on their previous experience.
The key sections of the booklet, which will be explored in more detail, include:

a) an introduction to the booklet: it suggests spending around EIGHT HOURS working through the booklet - this time will be spent around half and half between class time and study at home using the booklet we will provide
b) suggested activities: these relate mainly to MY PLACE
c) KEY TERMS used in the booklet
They are:
KEY WORKERS: teachers, nurses, police and other people who are vital to a community
CONFLICT: when the use of land causes disagreement between groups of people

d) Resources on population change in England and Wales
e) Information on Gloucester and its redevelopment
f) OS extract of Gloucester
g) Details about a proposed site for new housing in Gloucester

There is a wide range of different TYPES of resources, which include:

• TEXT
• MAPS
• PHOTOGRAPHS
• POPULATION PYRAMIDS
• GRAPHS: Line, Divided Bar, Radial
• STATISTICS
• OS MAP and KEY
• NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
• ADVERTISEMENTS
• AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS
• FIELDWORK DATA
  

You will need to be able to manipulate all of this data to answer questions.

An obvious line of enquiry would be to look at why there is a shortage of available affordable housing in Gloucester for key workers, and to look at the plan to build new housing, and

Also good to see some of Ian Murray's pictures from the GEOGRAPHY PHOTOS website being used in the book. We subscribe to this website, and you can use the photos if you wish in your work. See me for more details.

So, when you get the booklet, start reading and remember that you have a chance to get familiar with it - during the exam is NOT the time to start reading it for the first time !

I will be going to a meeting in Norwich in a week or so's time to discuss with the other schools who are doing the Pilot GCSE in Norfolk what particular themes we think are likely to be covered on the exam, and how best to prepare you.

OK, now we need to get cracking !!

OK, so the computers are apparently back up and running, and we can now get moving on the final pieces of coursework.
Remember that there are 3 brief pieces of work, which will together make up 17% of your final grade, so they are not CRITICAL, but they are VITAL if you really want to get a top grade at the end of the course.
The second piece of work needs to be done this week, along with the data collection for the second piece of work.
I need to have the questionnaires done by the end of the week, so that we can spend the next 2 computer sessions (and hopefully time at home - if you DO have ICT access at home this is recommended) completing this. Remember it's about QUALITY not QUANTITY, and that about 2 hours should be enough to complete ANY of them...

Spot the location....

As well as playing 'Spot the North Yorkshire location' in Heartbeat and the Royal, we now have another chance to play spot the location, but this time we can all join in as the new drama series 'KINGDOM' starts tonight with Stephen Fry. Drive from King's Lynn to Swaffham and you'll pass Stephen's house (not that I'm an obsessive stalker or anything...) and there are plenty of local places as locations.

A good quote from a TV listing said "the landscape, seascape and townscape of Norfolk is beautifully shot"...

So try to play the KINGDOM game and score 1 point for SPOTTING any of the following:
a) the Swaffham buttercross
b) the harbour at Wells next the Sea
c) a huge sandy Norfolk beach
d) a vintage car
e) an eccentric local played by a character actor from the Vicar of Dibley or Tony Slattery...
f) the beach huts at Wells next the Sea
(more to come soon - haven't seen the programme yet...)

And another MY PLACE type of quote from an EDP article:

When was the last time you looked at television and seven-eighths of the screen was taken up by the sky? Which it is when you stand in Norfolk,”

“This is just a very different look. The light is different. Everything about Norfolk is unusual for people who don't know it, and it will look different in drama.

“You either get Norfolk, with its wild roughness and its uncultivated oddities, or you don't. This bizarre mixture of high-intensity agricultural fields and then completely wild copses and woodlands and then the mad coast. It's not all soft and lovely. It doesn't ask to be loved. But there's something so fantastically beautiful about it; the skies are so big that they have an effect on the mind.

“You belong to a part of the world and you think it's gorgeous. Sean Connery and Robbie Coltrane do it for Scotland, Martin Clunes does it for his part of Cornwall in Doc Martin... You feel a loyalty to the place you call home, especially when it has qualities that you think are different.

“We all know Herriot country or Last of the Summer Wine country. If the show touches people in that particular way certain shows can - where there's such a flavour and atmosphere that such a phrase as 'Kingdom country' could come about - that would be quite wonderful.”

UPDATE
Now seen the first episode and it was OK, but some dodgy casting and characters not quite there yet. Maybe after a few weeks it'll bed itself in... Stephen Fry is good though...
Anyone spot any more locations ?

Art and Landscape

Quick post to break the monotony of marking and other stuff... Did you know it was Earth Day today ? Here's GOOGLE's special logo for the day.

We have been looking at the idea of PLACE. I like the way that different artists are inspired by place, and represent it in different ways. I'd like to share a few recent links with you. Some of you will know that my wife is an artist and teacher, so I've always had an interest in the merging of Geography and the creative arts.

First of all, when I went to Aldeburgh and Southwold recently, I came across the art of DAVID KIRK, who has a wonderful style and has produced some very tasteful prints of SOUTHWOLD and ALDEBURGH, one of which is currently my laptop desktop as you may have seen.

Also a new exhibition forthcoming of DAVID HOCKNEY paintings. Hockney is a great artist, and his new paintings are a homecoming to his native Yorkshire (which is my home county too....) particularly East Yorkshire. The image below is of WOLDGATE WOODS, and is over 12 feet across, painted on separate panels and joined together.

Also check out the work of ANDY GOLDSWORTHY. Family went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield over Easter to see his latest works, particularly a curtain made of chestnut twigs.
This TIME article makes the connections nicely between art and landscape.

Get out there and broaden your horizons !!

Chartered Geographer

Chartered Geographer

Want professional recognition for all that you do for the Geography community and for Geography within your current school ?
Why not apply for Chartered Geographer (Teacher) status from the RGS-IBG.

I applied this year, and in April heard that I have been accepted, so I am now a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Chartered Geographer. If you would like to know more about the process, or what I did for my application please get in touch.

I also have a very nice framed shiny 'halo' for my wall...

Ghosts: Migration and Consumption...

This week, on More4, there was the first TV screening of Nick Broomfield's film GHOSTS, which is about the deaths of 23 Chinese cockle pickers off Morecambe Bay in 2004.

The MORECAMBE VICTIM FUND has been set up to raise money for the vitims' families. It features video and other information related to the victims of the tragedy, along with a comprehensive range of media articles.

This has a lot of links with both geography, in terms of migration and work on consumption, and also Norfolk, where the main character in the film ends up working for a gangmaster picking vegetables for supermarkets.
I came across this very interesting description of a response to the film in the Light and Shade blog of Lianne. Hopefully she won't mind me repeating this short section:
"More than 24 hours later I still feel somewhat shaken by the experience. Despite the harrowing scenes, a more mundane moment particularly stuck with me. Ai Qin is picking spring onions and casually asks someone where they go when they are picked. She's informed that they are sent to Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco. At the Q&A after, Nick Broomfield revealed that he posed undercover as an illegal, picking spring onions as part of his research, and the onions he picked were indeed going to British supermarkets. Sitting on my bus on the way home, it occured to me I hadn't been shopping and had nothing in for dinner. The thought of going to my local Sainsbury's made me shudder - how can I buy my fruit and veg from there when the agricultural workers supplying this produce are so exploited? My thoughts then turned to the organic vegetable boxes I sometimes order, or the farmers markets I buy from. And I remembered the scene in the film when a local farmer picks up Ain Qin and the others for a days labour, picking apples. There's so much focus at the moment on organic produce and ethically sourced produce, how do you really know that no one has been exploited in the process of getting that produce from a field in Norfolk to the fridge in your flat? Among the many questions this film raises, this was perhaps the most powerful for me, boiling it down to the lifestyle choices I make.

As if all that were not uncomfortable and shocking enough, the film had another unpleasant truth in store - the revelation that the families of the Morecambe Bay victims are still struggling to pay off the money lenders to whom their relatives turned to pay for their passage to the UK. They have lost the principal earner and are threatened by the money lenders. The British government refuses to help."

The film will be repeated several times more on More4 before being shown on Channel 4 later in the year. There have been some criticisms of the film, but it remains a powerful representation of the issues surrounding international migration.

Free Alan Johnston

The Human Footprint on Channel 4

This is a MUST WATCH programme for all Pilot Geographers.
It's being shown on Channel 4 at 9pm next Thursday, the 26th of April
A new MICROSITE is now up and running which includes a FOOTPRINT CALCULATOR and also will tell you your LIFE IN NUMBERS.
The FOOTPRINT CALCULATOR is a great FLASH tool.
Check it out now, and watch the programme next Thursday !!

Consumer Landscapes

OK, so today we were looking at the results of the survey which you carried out (although there was little evidence of that from some of you I have to say...) over the Easter break.

This was to ask relatives of the changes that they had noticed in CONSUMER LANDSCAPES: in other words WHERE, WHEN, WHY and HOW people shop today compared to the past.
There are several different types of CONSUMER LANDSCAPE, which include:

• the 'High Street' or CBD
• Out of town shopping centres e.g. Bluewater, Lakeside, Meadowhall, Trafford Centre
• Retail parks
• Corner shops and village centres / shopping parades
  
• Theme Parks / Resorts e.g. Center Parcs

I asked you for some of the general trends you had identified and they came out quite similar to the ones on THIS POST ON TONY CASSIDY's BLOG

Here are some random quotes from a survey:

COMING SOON....

So what are the changes that you have noticed:

BOGOF! (I only asked....)

King's Lynn - the fightback !!

King's Lynn Town Centre has just been redeveloped at a considerable cost. Was it worth the money ? Has it drawn people back into the town centre ? Did the lengthy construction cost cause people to try other places instead and then change their habits?

We are going to look at the differences between out of town centres and town centres.
Make sure that you can talk about the 'benefits' of places like Bluewater.
Check out THIS OTHER POST on Tony's blog.

Next week we are going to do the data collection for the final piece of coursework and (fingers crossed) the computers will work !

Returned coursework....

Just had e-mails back from Gemma, Jess and Brent's e-mails... You obviously gave me incorrect addresses. Please e-mail if you want me to send your partially completed coursework to you...

A mention at the GA Conference....

This blog was mentioned in a session run at the Geographical Association's conference, at the University of Derby last weekend. Session on blogging delivered by Val Vannet. Check out the Slideshare hosted presentation below:

Computer woes...

OK. So computers still aren't working.
Wasted some time today, but you were very patient and we managed to get some of you working, and then consider the next stage.
Coming soon is the People as Consumers coursework - make sure that you do the Easter holiday stuff by Friday! We can't wait any longer for that...

Just spent an hour plus getting coursework one by one of the network and e-mailing it to the following people: Aaron, Matthew, Daniel, Gemma, Victoria, Estelle, Jess, Brent, Chantelle, Jasmine, Leonie, Danielle and Holly.

Coming soon: the table for the consumption diary, and my Sunday diary of consumption....

Back to School....

Those three little words we all love to hear...

OK, so you should hopefully have been collecting some questionnaire responses on shopping and consumer trends.
I was in school today and the computers are working again, although I haven't tried all of your student logins of course so anything could still happen, but I'm confident that this week we can finish off the second piece of coursework ready for the third to start next week. It's important that you come prepared to plan the FUTURE for King's Lynn which is not the 'obvious ideas' - be creative but realistic...

We are going to be receiving the pre-release booklet towards the end of the month I understand.

GLOBALISATION is one of our key topics in Geography - remember FUGIS ? - can you still define them all ?

An online colleague: Mr Chambers has let me know about a new site as part of the BBC WORLD SERVICE
Image: Copyright BBC World Service

This has some great resources and links and is well worth exploring - in other words, LOOK AT IT !!!

Beside the Seaside

First class images..
I love the look of these stamps, which are being released on the 15th of May...

How about choosing 6 images for stamps in a special release to commemorate King's Lynn...

Link to an earlier post is that the ice cream cone picture was taken by Martin Parr.

4 days in....

...to the holiday, and had time to adjust to being human-ish again...

Ollie Bray and Tony Cassidy have put me on to a site called TOON DOO, which we may have a chance to have a go at, although time will be short when we return. It allows you to create online cartoons. Could go for a cartoon KS3 next year...
Claire, Jade and Estelle - you need to e-mail me so that I can send the My Place files on to you...

EDP today had a front page lead article on the way that Tesco is affecting local towns, and their SHOP HERE campaign...

Another Google Gadget

Suggest some Geographical links ?!

Junk Food Ads Ban

Junk Food Still Life by Flickr user awrose - thanks ! (let me know if you object to the image's use)
Consumers get a lot of their ideas as to what to consume from TV ads, particularly young consumers. From today there will be fewer chances as a ban has come into force to prevent ads for foods high in fat and sugar being shown in association with TV programmes aimed at young children.

And speaking of so called 'junk food': this chippy in Aldeburgh serves the best fish and chips I've had in ages - had some a couple of weeks ago - be prepared to queue though...

Just found this on GOOGLE GADGETS....

What is the link with junk food ?

Blakeney Webcam

Tony Cassidy has posted instructions of how to embed a webcam image into a blog on his radicalwebcamgeography site.
The image below is a webcam in Blakeney on the Norfolk coast. Watch the tides come and go.
Nice and sunny in Norfolk today !




May see this on the forthcoming SLN weekend.

Geography: Art and Music

Just watching “The Culture Show” while digesting the rather yummy vegetarian sausage casserole I made earlier.

Washed down with a glass of Adnams Broadside, which according to the label on the neck is the lightest 500ml bottle in the UK as it uses the least glass.

Watching feature on Andy Goldsworthy: has an exhibition which opens today at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park:

Watch him work here.

Art and Geography combining, as he uses natural materials, and explores ideas of recycling and decay. Plan to call in next week on the way up to Yorkshire.

Also a nice feature on the musician Damon Gough, also known as Badly Drawn Boy. Has a new album: “Born in the UK” which explores themes of identity and what it means to be British, and growing up in the 1970’s. He is doing a concert tour of fish and chip shops.

In the interview, he gave some good quotes which are relevant to MY PLACE:

“People think I’m being patriotic, but ....this is all I’ve got, this is the card I was dealt, no one chooses their birthplace."
"In my lifetime, Englishness has changed"

"You didn’t choose to be born where you were born but why do we become obsessed with the identity that it gives you…"

Did a tour of fish and chip shops

"Fish and chips represent tradition. For me Friday nights growing up was always chippy night…Family values

Worth ethic, all that kind of thing..."

"In the times we’re living in, certain things are in danger of being forgotten"

Searched out a few of the songs and their lyrics. Here are the lyrics for Born in the UK.

Buy a copy from Amazon

Where were you in Seventy Six
The long hot summer
You wanna be a rebel
Then turn your hosepipes on
With two years to wait
For the sound of Jilted John

Virginia Wade was winning our hearts
She made us want to live
Vicious and his brothers
Were trying to set us free
But much more than this to you and me
This was the Silver Jubilee

We made something out of nothing
A sense of loathing and belonging

Some of us were gonna be rich
With the Iron Lady
Lennon's gone already
Let's post the boys to war
Oh mother, what're you worrying for
It's somewhere he's not been before

Then you see the Union Jack
And it means nothing
But somehow you know
That you will find your own way
It's a small reminder every day
That I was born in the U.K.

If you object to your lyrics being here Damon, please get in touch…

Nice mention of Jilted John there….