Geography and all that Jazz

On Wednesday of next week, I will be in Lincoln at this event. It is a major event held on the Lincoln Showground in the EPIC Centre , and I will be sharing the duties of manning the GA stand with John Halocha : the GA's PRESIDENT. They are expecting over 2000 visitors , so if you are one of those, please come along and say hello.... Over 100 exhibitors including: A school garden from Inspirational Gardens, Fairtrade Foundation, Geographical Association , Expo Chef, Resike, Cyclemagic, National Trust, CfBT Talent Lincolnshire, Pulp-works, Gelders, 4solar, Targeted Mental Health, and a Speakers Corner. For any adults supporting their school to become more sustainable including headteachers, teachers, bursars, governors there are many talks including: Achieving sustainable communities through sustainable schools - DCSF and Ofsted From Curriculum To Classroom… QCDA Primary Curriculum 10:10 - a smart way to cut energy demand in your school Developing school grounds with Learning throug

Map of the Rhubarb Triangle Image by Flickr user net_efekt under Creative Commons At this time of year, you will find rhubarb appearing in the shops. It will have been produced under forced conditions, (unless it is imported of course...) - English rhubarb is, of course, the best... RHUBARB The Daily Mail has a useful article on the Rhubarb Triangle , which was a favourite case study of Chris Durbin's.... (sadly our SLN conversations on the topic have disappeared....) The unique vegetable - grown only by 12 producers in a 'rhubarb triangle' in West Yorkshire - has been granted Protected Designation of Origin status by the European Commission. Producers now have the same geographical marketing protection afforded to more famous specialities such as Champagne, Parma ham, Cornish clotted cream and Roquefort cheese. A really nice article on the BBC MAGAZINE site about the area known as the rhubarb triangle. There is a good site by one of the producers: E Oldroyd and Sons (

Here's one that got away... Almost 2 years ago, Tom Barrett and I discussed an idea for a Google Earth grant. They were offering cash to start up projects using Google Earth in innovative ways... We came up with an idea called STORYBOOK EARTH , which would gather and geolocate children's stories. If anyone would like to give us some cash to get the idea off the ground, feel free to get in touch :)

Image CC licensed by Flickr user raindog A rare social event yesterday. After working on some projects, it was a train down to London to the BARBICAN : love the feel of it after dark when the apartment lights come on above the lake with the fountains and the seating pods. Inside is always buzzing too with a range of different people using it for different purposes. Outside there was some amazing snow which swirled around the place... The occasion was a gig by Pat Metheny , who I first saw live in 1982 !! Have seen him numerous times since, most recently when his group performed "The Way Up" The project is called ORCHESTRION - an earlier blog post contained a video, and this was the only UK date for the project. There is a review on Jazzwise And for a picture of the ORCHESTRION itself, see HERE - thanks to the Goldsmith family A great concert: out to wander back along London Wall, guided by my iPhone to my hotel...

On Wednesday night, I will be at the Barbican in the evening for a concert by Pat Metheny which promises to be a one-off evening: for a start it's the only UK date for Pat, and for the other, it features him with his ORCHESTRION .

Image by Alan Parkinson This weekend was spent in the august surroundings (although it was January) of Madingley Hall , to the North West of Cambridge, close to the American cemetery, and in beautiful rolling countryside. The occasion was the annual Geography Teacher Educators ' conference. This year's was organised by Liz Taylor and colleagues at the University of Cambridge. I have known Liz for quite a while, as the school I used to teach at worked with Homerton College in Initial Teacher Training/Education - several colleagues started out on the PGCE course there. I attended the first two days, with a dusting of snow overnight adding a touch of magic to the grounds. The food was great, comfortable accommodation, and a range of excellent sessions to attend. There were also some excellent local ales brewed by the City of Cambridge brewery : one of them: 'Scholars' Choice' was brewed specially for Madingley Hall, and was fairly delicious. I used my iPhone app to w

A new report published by Oxfam and IIIED is now available from the Oxfam site. It is available to purchase, or as a FREE PDF download. (link starts download of the resource) The report is called FAIR MILES. I have had a quick look and it is a useful document. Thanks to @primageographer for the tipoff to this resource, which will prove useful for preparation for my GA Conference 2010 workshop on this topic.... Here's a description, taken from the Oxfam website: Today’s food is well travelled. A pack of green beans in a Northern supermarket may have journeyed 6000 miles, or 60. But while food miles loom large in our carbon-aware times, transporting it counts for less than you might think. And there is a far bigger picture. Food is more than a plateful of emissions. It’s a social, political and economic issue that involves millions of small farmers in poor countries who export produce to the North. They have built lives and livelihoods around this trade. By buying what they grow,