The Land Song
 Curious old recording of radical Liberal anthem The Land, with even more curious video's from YouTube. Michael Foot's favourite political song (a fairly thin canon admittedly), its a rousing pro-land...
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"Songs, like the grass, are evergreen": Landscape as a musical motif
The pastoral opening scene to Danny Boyle's Isles of Wonder, Olympic Opening Ceremony.“How do you soundtrack a city? Or a nation? Is there a score to be written for this green and pleasant land of...
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"Is there no end to this accursed forest?"
Back from a long weekend camping above the Wye Valley, on the edge of the Forest of Dean: "The very rim of England" (Roger Deakin, Wildwood). As the visit was punctuated by the biblical downpours that...
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Land Observations: Roman Roads IV-XI
Just released on Mute Records, Roman Roads IV-XIÂ is the first release by Land Observations (James Brooks)An intriguing mix of metronomic Neu!/ Spacemen 3 sound and topographical subject matter, each...
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God's Own Country
I've just finished reading God's Own Country, the 2008 debut novel of Ross Raisin. And its compact 210 pages were 'gradely' compelling.Ostensibly the book is a tale of a Walter Mitty-esque farmer's son...
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Jimi Bush
My kind of landscape gardening (via The Poke). Jimi Hendrix as the Green Man. No more needs to be said.
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The path, winding like silver, trickles on...
Offa's Dyke National TrailI've signed up to a new and inspiring initiative set up by the Brecon Beacons National Park: the Black Mountains Upland Volunteers scheme.The idea is a simple one. To train up...
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Landscape in particular 5: Hergest Ridge
This is the latest in a regular-occasional series of posts on specific landscapes that mean a lot to me, or are new discoveries; after all, interest in the topographical is nothing without a feeling...
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Avebury Stone Circle: 'an uncanny landscape'
I'm currently enjoying the BFI box set of BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas. Mostly adaptations of classic M.R. James stories, they provide perfect fireside viewing on a winter's night. However, the 1977...
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A triptych of ruins, carved into the landscape
The Castle: medieval Redcastle?"Red Castle, in Welsh Castell-coch, was a small manor at the lower end of the Hattrel Hill above Tre-wyn. I have failed to find any court rolls or details of this manor....
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River Song - ecstatic landscapes of the mind
  River Song, the opening track on Dennis Wilson's solo album Pacific Ocean Bluepersonifies a yearning for a more simple relationship with the natural world. Perhaps only an illusionary late 60's to...
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Local topographies and vaster worlds: Hunters in the Snow
Cycling to and from work today, through a frozen, sub-zero landscape, I have been drawn into my favourite landscape painting, Pieter Bruegel the Elder'sHunters in the Snow.The picture is one of a...
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Ash: the shaggy signs of Pan
Despite the obvious seriousness of the current ash diebackoutbreak, I have toadmit to having observed the crisis with a certain ambivalence towards this tree. However, today, walking the wooded combe's...
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A midwinter hand-list
Its the time of year when my pile of 'on the go' and 'to read' books reaches a critical mass, boosted by Christmas presents; a tipping point from which I will not be able to catch-up, but will enjoy...
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Dial Garreg: A story of stone
Dial Garreg: the Revenge Stone.The remains of the cross commemorating the murder of Richard de Clare, Marcher Lord, in 1136.In 1136 Richard had been away from his lordship in the early part of the...
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Mapping the Old Straight Tracks
Ley lines are not for me as a credible theory but, like ghost stories and other esoteric and arcane ideas, for a rationale observer who is open to a bit of subversion they hold an undoubted appeal....
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Pandaemonium begins
Fine map that neatly shows the (literal) powerhouses and important landmarks of the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in Britain.And, as an accompanying piece, Humphrey Jennings' Pandaemonium...
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Finding wildness: places to be left alone with yourself
A common leitmotif of writings and commentary on landscapes - both urban and rural - is that wildness, and nature itself, is on the retreat; clinging on in only a few hard to findredoubts. Received...
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A scrap of a memory - Arcadian dreaming
"Let me love the country, the rivers running through the valleys, the streams and woodlands - happy though unknown. Give me broad fields and sweeping rivers, lofty mountain ranges in distant lands,...
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Wild utopian trilogy
Three books are occupying my thoughts at the moment; linked by their combination ofa contemporary critique of the harsh realities of late nineteenth century capitalism and industrialization with a...
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