Metaphors are a powerful part of the ways in which we think. Metaphors provide us with a way of characterising the new and of reconstructing the familiar. Here is a way of thinking about metaphor and landscape. Start by thinking of a dog: make a list of things that a dog does, essentially a list … Continue reading Verb into metaphor
Tag: landscape
Beneath the surface.
One way of using the T-Cut book (28thApril 2021) might be to display your writing about where you live. You could write a surface description on the outer pages. These may already reveal how you feel about your place. Even so, you could write something more personal in the space within the folded doors, a … Continue reading Beneath the surface.
My Place
‘People exploitwhat they have merely concluded to be of value, but the defendwhat they love and to defend what we love we need a particularizing language, for we love what we particularly know.’ Wendell Berry Robert Macfarlane quotes Berry in his book Landmarks, drawing attention to the moral dimension of looking closely and naming carefully. We could begin … Continue reading My Place
Map it out
It is World Earth day tomorrow. Last year we showed you how to make pop-up books to celebrate. This year you could make a map fold book and use it to record your local area. Choose quite a small area -maybe you have a playground or a playing field; maybe you could map out the … Continue reading Map it out
Land Words
Words are endlessly fascinating. Naming is so interesting and important. I read recently about a book by John McPhee, The Crofter and the Land. McPhee visited the Hebridean island of Colonsay where his family originated. He discovered that every beach, gully, cliff and rise of land has a name. On a tiny island of only 138 … Continue reading Land Words
Naming the land
When we know a place well, we have our own local names for streets and landmarks. In our village, where there is a ‘Front Street’, many people call the parallel street, ‘Back Street’, even though it has a quite different name on the street sign. There is a Mill Road [though the mill no longer … Continue reading Naming the land
Writing Box 