On the sixth day of Christmas we have six geese a laying. My thoughts went to goosy, goosy gander and wandering. One of my fascinations is anything to do with maps and walking, discovering, treasure hunting and map related puzzles. My present to you this sixth day is a collection of links to map related quests, so arm yourself with your post code, map co-ordinates or GPS info and see what you learn about your area: (Health warning, if you are easily distracted, make a cup of tea now and if you have Spotify click here for the playlist, you may be here some time)
MapZone – breaking you in gently, this is an interactive resource aimed at children from Ordnance Survey but so fabulous, map jigsaws to match county and country maps; the squirrel's nuts (takes me back to Day 1), crosswords and so much more.
Ordnance Survey select – create your own paper map with your home at its centre.
Geograph – The Geograph British Isles project aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland and you can be part of it. Take a photo, submit it and if they like it, your photo will become part of the database. Beware their standards can be quite exacting.
Ordnance Survey Explore – find routes, create and share routes. Here is a special present from me, a walk for anyone with strong legs and time in the Cotswolds. Called 'Up Tyley's Bottom', which is funny enough, but for some who read this might be even funnier.
Bench - Marks – now if ever a geek award was to be offered for things map related this would have to be a suitable candidate. Small brackets attached to buildings such as schools and churches, find them, log them, their condition etc. At the time of writing The database contains13,000 non-pillar flush brackets, consisting of 2,947 2GL brackets, 5,143 S-series,4,893 G-series, 16 L-series, and 1 other
Geocaching – The hiding of small boxes, marking them with GPS co-ordinates, setting clues and tracking their contents as they move around the globe. I love this stuff, really anoraky, embarrasses the children; ticks all the boxes actually.
Land Registry – Not so much a game of hide and seek, unless of course you are interested in arguing about ownership, boundaries etc. It is amazing how much information is held and publically available at little or no price.
Then of course there are a host of others for example Weather maps, Flood Maps, Public Health
For the iphone there are a huge range of map related Apps, my favourites so far are geocaching, MapMyRide GBLocate and PhotoOverlay.
Adding maps to blogs and websites – I have yet to perfect this but you can use Get-a-map and OSOpenspace – one of my New Year's Resolutions will be about mastering that lot.
By the way the most 'boring square' in the UK maps is at Ousefleet, in the 1:50 000 scale map, just below the word Ousefleet is a square with just a tiny bit of pylon line. Here it is:Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.
All of this and I haven't even touched on Google Maps and mashables; if you've got the rest of your life to do nothing else, work your way through this lot….. http://mashable.com/2009/01/08/google-maps-mashups-tools/
And if you are stuck in 20 feet of snow and want a little something to read I recommend Map Addict by Mike Parker
My quest for you all, in the last 24 hours I have been much exercised by those little black or white shoes; with or without laces that were essential wear for PE at school. I would quite like to map what they are called in different parts of the country. I went to school in the South Cotswolds and called them daps. Where did you go and what were they called? I would like to create a Dap Map!
Oh and one other thing, would you like to add yourself to the visitors map on the right there? Thanks.
For those that are still following the legs quest another 32 arrived today; so far 92 have been delivered.
And....... drum roll......... here it is so far...The Dap Map at 18.44
The playlist in words for those without Spotify
ReplyDeleteThe National – The Geese Of Beverly Road
Friendly Fires – Jump In The Pool (Wild Geese Remix)
Joan Armatrading – Flight Of The Wild Geese
Joshua James – Geese
The Verve – Where The Geese Go
Barenaked Ladies – Here Come The Geese
Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia Pipe Band – I Laid A Herrin' In Salt - The Geese In The Bog
George Fenton – The Snow Geese
The Chieftains – The Wild Geese
Nile – Laying Fire Upon Apep
Starship – Laying It On The Line
Willie Nelson – Laying My Burdens Down - "Naked" version
Fila Brazillia – Laying Down The Law On The Lard
Chrome Dreams - CD Audio Series – Laying Foundations
Bobby Bare – Laying Here Lying In Bed
Leon Russell – Laying Right Here In Heaven
Stefano Tappari – Laying In Black
Anand Bhatt – Laying It Down
Your Hero – Laying Perfectly
Charles Bernstein – Laying The Traps
I was in Northants (on Leics, Warks border) and we wore either pumps or plimmies (short for plimsoles).We kept them in a pump bag.
ReplyDeleteI've always been fascinated by "alleys". In Northants they were jetties or jitties. In Norfolk they're lokes. Next map pehaps? :¬)
Plimsolls, or plimmies for us in North London. For some reason the black ones were more desirable than the white, and the lace ups considered more "grown up" than the elastic insert ones.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say I had white ones with elastic. But I was a deprived child :)
by alleys do you mean the thing between houses? if so I think in Liverpool they used to be called the back entry :0 and in other parts of the north (Yorkshire, I think) they are called ginnels (as referred to in an EBTG song)
ReplyDeleteAnother map for you it seems
Gym shoes should be called gym shoes.
ReplyDeleteFor pumps see Christian Loboutin Décolleté 100.
http://www.net-a-porter.com/product/48414
For galoshes see Tingley Rubber dress overshoes.
http://www.tingleyrubber.com/tingley/dressovershoe.html
For gollies see Robertson's Jam.
http://www.golliwogg.co.uk/robertsons.htm
I'm with josordoni on this one, I am a Hertfordshire gal - plimsoles every time, I always had the black ones with a gusset - how I longed for white lace ups!!!
ReplyDeleteforgot to say they were pumps in lancashire - most confusing when I then encountered loubies i must say the price tag seemed rather high at first ;0
ReplyDeleteI love maps. I have several old ones of places I have never been to, picked up in charity shops. I love Googlemaps and Street View and can wander around for hours. There are a few houses I know on Street View now. I used to draw maps of imaginary places as a child - mmm, maybe I will do it again.
ReplyDeleteAnd another good read, though not on the subject, is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - well, I enjoyed it.
I think my plimsoles were just plimsoles but at my school you had to have outdoor plimsoles and indoor plimsoles.
Right, in my capacity as the batty old bag in the corner who grasps you by the lapel at any party given half a chance, I shall now go back to my small port (any port in a storm) and mince pie
P.S. Someone told me that those little alleys were called Twitchells in Plymouth
ReplyDeleteI went to school in Bristol in the 60's and PE shoes were definitely called Daps. There was also a drink I used to like (when I was older of course!) called a Brown Split. It consisted of a bottle of brown ale topped up to a pint with draught bitter. I got some strange looks when I asked for this drink in the home counties.
ReplyDeleteI just love the Dap Map. Long live daps. Can you tell I'm a dap girl eh? eh! eh! :-)
ReplyDeleteThis topic has fascinated me. the map will remain 'open' so if you come across any other instances of dap/pump/plimsole/gym shoe/guttie/goilie usage that can be geographically fixed please let me know
ReplyDelete