Geography and all that Jazz

The Campaign to Protect Rural England 's PLANNING DISASTER site which I have mentioned before has a useful map now added which allows you to choose to add a series of layers which have details of proposed developments which would change the character of rural England. You can explore which are local issues, and perhaps choose to develop these in the classroom. A quick look brings up some proposals, including the structure below, which I can see on clear days from close to my house, not that I'm necessarily for or against it. Any ideas what it could be ? Answers in a comment please... Hot today. Must say I actually prefer the cooler weather. And could this (released in November) finally be the first decent album since Amarok ? The signs are not ideal I have to say - Hayley Westenra ? Mind you...Faith Brown ??

Saving our Landscape ? This week has seen a few interesting developments... On Monday, Bill Bryson became the new president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. He gave a speech which was reported in the Guardian and can now be read on the CPRE's website. Bill Bryson's speech This had a lot of useful Geography in it: particularly the idea about the UK landscape and the threats that it faces. Later in the week, there was an interesting letter from Peter Dunn published in the Guardian which gave an alternative view of CPRE's policies, referring to Prunella Scales, who starred in a series of Tesco ads, but was also a former president. A good section in the middle of the letter would make a great discussion starter: "I've never met a farmer who doesn't loathe supermarkets for what they are doing to the farming community, yet the CPRE saw no conflict of interests in her appointment. Likewise it remains coy about the annexation of rural housing by wealthy towns...