Geography and all that Jazz

2 RGS-IBG 'events'... Just catching up with the Monday night lecture that Robert MacFarlane gave at the Royal Geographical Society on the 14th of April relating to his wonderful book that I have blogged about before: " The Wild Places ". I was unable to attend this particular lecture (it being my daughter's birthday), but this is the next best thing... It's available to RGS-IBG members, and I would recommend that you listen to it. It's full of humour and powerful images, and introduces a new way of exploring the landscape: "border crossings" as Dr. MacFarlane calls them.... It was also good to hear mentions of some of my favourite authors: Barry Lopez (probably my favourite writer if pushed...), Colin Thubron, William Least-Heat Moon, Roger Deakin, Thoreau and Bruce Chatwin, and mentions of some of my favourite places, such as Camasunary and Coruisk on Skye, the Burren's limestone, Bleaklow in the Peak District and the wild expanse of Ran...

Knock on the door a couple of minutes ago brought a welcome parcel: a book I saw in the Liverpool Tate shop: "Patterns of the Earth". Like the sticker on the front which says "Essential for creative thinkers and inquiring minds." and the second book was one I've been waiting for for about 3 months, and which has had great reviews by people such as Rory McLean, Andrew Motion and Tim Adams. Search for "wild places MacFarlane" to read the reviews for yourself. He visits places I know well myself: Norfolk, Loch Coruisk and Raasay.. Even the map at the front of the book makes you look at the country from a different angle.. I'm looking forward to getting stuck into this, but first I have to cook tea...

A few things today.. First of all, and interesting (albeit historical) resource is a site to publicise Hadrian's Wall called PLAN YOUR INVASION . It has a Flash movie intro, and some embedded Google Maps to help visitors create a personalised plan of their route. Lots of information, and the Education section has information on how the area is managed. Second thing is that I've been reading my copy of the first issue of ' Archipelago ' - a new literary magazine which has a preoccupation with Landscape. Nice taster of the new Robert Macfarlane book which is out next month. Also a friend of mine: Rob Hindle, whose poetry I've mentioned before, won the Late Night Tales competition in the GUARDIAN . Nice one Rob! And another friend has some paintings in Salthouse 07: a local(ish) art event, described in the local paper the EDP as: "the bird-rife landscapes of Caroline Kent"

Got landscapes on my mind at the moment due to a major project I'm trying to finish... Just seen a trailer for what looks like being a good series: 5 parts, each an hour long, and starting at 9pm next Sunday evening... Here is the description of the series: Griff Rhys Jones will be undertaking an arduous journey of the British Isles - from the far north of Scotland to Dartmoor in the south across the roughest mountain landscapes. He encounters sublime scenery, wildlife and dramatic shifts in the seasons. Along the way he meets crofters, poets, photographers, mountain rescue teams - from lords of the manor to the well-travelled postman. He will show us what it is like to live in the shad ows of the hills, and meet the people who go there with the aim of conquering their heights. Griff will also look at the historical tales of the British mountains - epic battles, early pioneers and geological marvels. For the viewer this will be visually sumptuous; for Griff Rhys...

Just been writing an article for the new e-magazine which is going to be launched in January 2007 called "The Global Geographer", and I've found myself referring back frequently to the work of an American author called Barry Lopez . I've been following his work for well over 20 years ! He is most famous for a book called "Arctic Dreams". In a book called "Crossing Open Ground", in a piece called "Landscape and Narrative" he talks about the idea of MY PLACE, and ends "the shape of the individual mind is affected by land as it is by genes" His most recent project is one called HOME GROUND . I've also found an article which I clipped out when it was published by another great author I mention: Robert MacFarlane, who produced a piece for the Guardian on Barry Lopez. It ends with this paragraph: Global warming is now depleting Arctic summer sea ice at a rate of 10% per annum. A plausible consequence of this depletion is that pol...