Highgate Cemetery....Karl Marx

A Camden Cassowary: Stables Market

Erasure sing-a-long on London Underground

1910: Metroland

Design Classics: London Underground Map

Going Underground at Bedtime: Mind the Gap......

Love the underground map duvet cover I received for Christmas....... perfect for a geographer! The underground map is a great example of a topological map, where the relationship between points is maintained but distance and direction have been modified. I have a map of the Piccadilly Line in my classroom as an example.

Tawny Owl calling

Tawny owls roost in the dense woodland surrounding the reservoir opposite my house and this is a familiar sound from my rooftop.

Waiting to get bittern...

Rolling a Reliant Robin - Top Gear - BBC

The Jackson 5 - Rockin' Robin 1972 RARE

The Christmas songster.....

It is a very still Christmas Eve and a robin is singing outside my window, Males and females have winter territories and sing to defend them, especially at dawn and dusk. Their song is a lovely melancholic accompaniment to winter and this year one aptly followed me into the house as we brought the Christmas tree in and spent a while searching for food around the conservatory. Robins perceive us as a source of food and this explains their boldness. 

Freiheit: Best Christmas song that wasn't.....

To me very reminiscent of Paul McCartney with a hint of ELO, this song never mentions Christmas but it was released in December 1988 so perhaps that is the association. Apparently the (original) German version is just as good if not better.

EXCLUSIVE - Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb Official Trailer #2 ...

Very much along the same formula as the first two but well worth a watch. Lovely scenes from London and a poignant last appearance by Robin Williams. Shame no Amy Adams this time but you can't have it all......

slade - merry christmas everybody

Incredible Geological Formations

How were these features formed? That is the question that makes this subject so fascinating.

Ice pancakes form on River Dee in Aberdeenshire

The Muppet Show--"Down at the Old Bull and Bush"

The kissing Season at the Elven Garden: One of London's Best Kept Secrets....

Hampstead Heath and Kenwood House are well- known but the Hill Gardens and Hampstead Pergola are one of best kept secrets of London. Adjacent to Golders Hill Park, they have an oddly appealing sense of gentle abandonment and decay balanced with a precise restoration and conservation programme that displays a lovely attention to detail, especially in terms of plantings.
There is also an almost fantasy feel to the location, reminiscent of an Elven garden overlooking the Wildwood of the Heath. It was a beautiful day and we almost had the place to ourselves. Well worth a visit:
http://www.hampsteadheath.net/introduction-2.html
And the kissing season....? They say that when the gorse is in flower it is the kissing season...which is a relief as it can be found flowering in every month of the year. With the clue in its name, Hampstead Heath does still possess remnant areas of gorse, especially in the more open areas, and despite the -5 temperatures of the night before, there were still large clumps in full bloom.

Tom Jones and Paloma Faith - God Only Knows at BBC Music Awards 2014

Paloma Faith - Smoke and Mirrors

Paloma Faith - Upside Down

Paloma Faith - West Wycombe

Looks like it was filmed at West Wycombe to me......

What Is A Weather Bomb?

The Dance off Debate: How to refresh classroom discussion - RUN-DMC, Jason Nevins - It's Like That

Classroom debates can be a little wearisome for students and so I used this video to enliven a debate about the UK'S membership of the EU with a group of sixth formers. We cleared a big space. Each student from either side was able to step forward and 'do a little dance' and say their piece, finishing off with the the phrase 'It's like that...and that's the way it is!'. I played the music in the background as each student walked forward and then back to their place. Nothing particularly incredible as a technique, but it made the debate FUN and they will remember it!

Scouting For Girls - Michaela Strachan

When Summer met Winter......

The coldest night of the year so far and the birds have really started to come to the feeders. What was unusual about this morning was the fact that the mild Autumn has caused many plants to continue flowering and to see so many covered in frost was a visual treat......if not so pleasurable for them!