#503: Local Distinctiveness

Common Ground has a "local distinctiveness" section to their website.

With the increasing homogenisation of the landscape and culture and the rise of AI slop, it's important to cherish those 'local' differences which can be explored using local fieldwork.

#475: 'Spirit of Place' in the wetlands

 A cross posting from my Geography in/on Film blog.

A new short film, featuring Mark Rylance 

Written and Directed by Jack Cooper Stimpson 

Produced by Lewis Brierly, Izzy Meikle-Small, Jack Cooper Stimpson 

Executive produced by On the Edge and made in association with the wetland conservation charity WWT (Wildfowl and Wetland Trust).

A brief summary of the plot:

Athel and Edward enjoy visiting the wetlands. Edward likes watching the birds, whilst Athel seems to have a much deeper connection to the landscape. When Athel makes a discovery, she is forced to re-examine what the wetlands mean to her. 

A meditation on identity, nature and wellington boots. 

The story explores human identity, discovery, and the mystery of these under-represented eco-systems.

A note from the director:

“Our wetland habitats were not on my radar prior to this project and it has been fascinating researching them and learning more about their quirks and characteristics, alongside their scientific function. Putting that on screen has been a wonderful challenge.

Now, more than ever, we need stories that will inspire audiences to acknowledge and exist in nature. Not apart from it. On The Edge are a company working at this intersection and I could not have hoped for a better team to have partnered with. I hope this film entertains and inspires audiences, whilst also encouraging them to go and explore their local wetlands.”

#370: Norman Ackroyd RIP

Art will hopefully keep its place in the draft specification.

I was sorry to hear this evening of the passing of Norman Ackroyd on Monday: one of our very greatest landscape artists.

He was a remarkable printmaker and artist. He shared the laborious process of making his etchings in several documentaries.

Listen to this programme with Robert MacFarlane.

RIP the great artist Norman Ackroyd (1938-16.09.24): etcher-magician who conjured weather & light from metal & acid; his work constitutes one of the great visual records of this archipelago’s edges.
We travelled together—& I made this programme with him: https://t.co/Y5licHxpcP pic.twitter.com/8bQDR95Fph

— Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) September 18, 2024

Here's the first part of a documentary on his method featuring some of his art...

#339: Romani gypsies and the landscape

Via Twitter - Historic England

Alternative views on our landscape and history.

Romani Gypsies arrived in the United Kingdom over 500 years ago, leaving an indelible mark on everything from art, music, and film to food, language, and politics. It could be assumed that with a culture historically centred around nomadism, tangible remains of this ethnicity are hard to spot. But the heritage of Romani Gypsies is all around us, seen in street names, old stopping places, at crossroads, cemeteries and meadows. 

In this short film, archaeologist and broadcaster John Henry Phillips explores the Suffolk countryside where he grew up to search for what remains and reflect on whether Romani Gypsy history has been forgotten or overlooked.

John Henry Phillips is an author, archaeologist, and filmmaker. He co-founded the non-profit Romani Community Archaeology, which excavates historic Romani sites alongside present-day Romani communities. John Henry is the author of The Search, presenter of Channel 4’s The Great British Dig, and created PBS’s No Roses On A Sailor’s Grave. 'Searching for Romani Gypsy Heritage' was created and composed by John Henry Phillips.

#248: Skye and The Cuillins

The Isle of Skye is a place which has a special place in my heart after repeated trips there in my 20s and 30s to climb and explore the island with friends.

Simon Ingram's book explores the key mountain range in the south of the island: the Black Cuillin Hills. it is available as a chunky paperback which looks rather fine on a shelf. The majority of the book is more about the geology and sense of place of the hills and their exploration by early climbers.

Chapter 12 is entitled 'Treasure'.

This chapter considers the natural history of the mountain range. It is well worth a listen if you have a chance. 

There's a few cultural references too, which I would try to bring in, including the poetry of Sorley MacLean and the music of the much-missed Martyn Bennett.

#99: The sound of autumn in Norfolk

They are back. I passed some in the fields near to Docking at the end of last week, and heard them for the first time near to Holme next the Sea. 

Pink-footed Goose
Anser brachyrhynchus

The pink-footed geese are back in Norfolk from their migration. Their noise is part of the atmosphere of autumn and when I lived in Snettisham for twelve years I would frequently stand outside my house staring up as skein after skein headed back out to the marshes for the night before coming inland to graze in the local fields. The numbers have been impacted by changes in farming methods, particularly with regards to the cropping of sugar beet.

Feathers via Featherbase.

The geese are juse one of the species mentioned in Nick Acheson's excellent book on geese in Norfolk.

The Meaning of Geese is the story of Nick Acheson's love for the land in which he was born and raised and for the wild geese that fill it with sound and spectacle every winter. During a time when many of us faced the prospect of little work or human contact, renowned naturalist Nick Acheson found a sense of peace and purpose in his pursuit of the wild geese that filled the Norfolk skies on their seasonal visits from Iceland and Siberia.

In The Meaning of Geese Nick recounts these adventures, starting with the dramatic arrival of the pinkfeet and brent geese as they land in the thousands in Britain each autumn. Over seven months he cycles 1,200 miles - the exact length of the pinkfeet's migration to Iceland, while encountering rarer geese, including Russian white-fronts, barnacle geese and an extremely unusual grey-bellied brant, a bird he had dreamt of seeing since thumbing his mother's copy of Peter Scott's field guide as a child. Nick keeps a diary of his sightings as well as the stories he discovers through the community of people, past and present, who love the geese and are working to protect their future.

Top image: Pink-footed geese over Snettisham, Norfolk - Winter 2009 - by Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license

Update October 2023

Read Nick's piece in the latest Big Issue. A warning to us ...