JDMcDsblog

cloud chart

Originally uploaded by jmmcdgll

It’s been a mix of a day. We went to the Scottish Deer Centre, near Cupar this morning. Nice, broken cloud, with plenty of blue sky, but come 1pm, as we all sat in the arena to watch the birds of prey demonstration, the skies darkened, the tempertaure dropped and we had hail and rain. Didn’t spoli the talk too much as we were all fascinated by the three birds on display-European Owl, Harrier Hawk and Falcon. The falcon was particularly impressive, coming in fast over the crowd like the RAF tornado we had seen earlier in the day, no doubt heading to Leuchers. Then, from 2 o’clock it brightened up and we were able to get some decent work done in the garden.

The route back from Cupar to Clarkston is like a transect through Scottish time and place-the large, rolling arable fields and extensive stone farm buildings make this a very different farming region to East Ren, with its predominant dairy herds; gold, brown and yellow to contrast with the green. I remembered the “windows on Scotland” approach we used in O Grade Geography, uisng selected maps that each convyed a sense of place-Grangemouth, for example,. still belching and flaring across the mournful mud flats of the Forth, or Blairgowrie-the classic market garden landscape, now often tilled by East Europeans (who would have predicted that social dynamic in the Communist mid 70s?).
On way back, we saw the engineering works going on for the Upper Forth crossing-struck me that I haven’t been over by Kincardine and Clackmanan since my days setting S Grade geogrpahy papers at Keiveil House, now five years ago. (Despite the tedium, I look forward to marking papers, as Markers; Meeting is a great time to meet up with old friends)
Almost everywhere I look there are wind farms, like forests of spartan, while trees. The latest is in my own backyard, at Eaglesham. They have a commanding position, and I imagine opinion is sharply divided. I think I like them, but I can choose not ot look at them-I don;t know how it would be if I had no choice.

Clouds of Fire v2 / Nubes de fuego v2

My first years have started studying weather. For useful links on weather revision, go to the S1 page of this blog. I thought readers would appreciate this spectacular photo which I found on Flickr. Today each pupil submitted a radial diagram summarising the key elements of the weather for a specific day. I shall be posting these later in the week, as part of a virtual gallery of pupil work.