Wishing you a wonderful festive season

The SUNCAT team would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Thank you to all who have contributed and used SUNCAT throughout 2016 and helped make this year our biggest and best yet. Here are some weird and wonderful Christmas-themed titles to enjoy and, following the weird and wonderful tradition, we hope you enjoy this Christmas bento image. Click through to get the recipe!

Photograph of Jiji Christmas Bento

Jiji Christmas Bento. By Mokiko, taken 21 December 2013. Available via Creative Commons license 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/)

  • Turkey–today & tomorrow / National Turkey Federation.
  • Gobbles.
  • The feathered world: and poultry farmer.
  • A pocketful of meat facts.
  • Poultry meat: broiler and turkey edition.
  • Cranberries; the national cranberry magazine.
  • Marketing Cape Cod cranberries.
  • Marketing California brussels sprouts.
  • Recommended varieties of brussels sprouts for single harvest and descriptive list for picking over.
  • Gandy Goose.
  • Donald Parsnips daily journal 1995 – 1999.
  • The Almanac of dried fruit and nuts.
  • Kent’s Christmas yule log.
  • The Biscuits & gravy quarterly.
  • Salmon trout steelheader.
  • Hot chestnuts.
  • Deluxe Rubber Chicken.
  • Chicken outfit.
  • National chicken cooking contest recipes.

We look forward to bringing you an even bigger and better SUNCAT in 2017!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

The SUNCAT team would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and happy New Year. Thanks to everyone who has contributed and used SUNCAT throughout 2014. Here are some weird and wonderful Christmas-themed titles to enjoy.

Image of the EDINA Christmas tree with a SUNCAT poster in the background.

The EDINA Christmas tree with a SUNCAT poster in the background.

  • Country accents Christmas cookies.
  • Shortcut holiday cooking.
  • Prevention’s have a natural Christmas.
  • Sunset Christmas ideas and answers.
  • Christmas with Victoria.
  • Christmas from the heart : home for the holidays.
  • Early American life holiday foods.
  • Christmas at home by the fireside.
  • Santa Claus collection.
  • Selling Christmas decorations.
  • Quilter’s newsletter magazine’s quilt it for Christmas.
  • Turkey marketing guide.
  • Turkey call / National Wild Turkey Federation.
  • Poultry meat broiler and turkey edition.
  • Cranberries : the national cranberry magazine.
  • Marketing Massachusetts cranberries.
  • Marketing California brussel sprouts.
  • Christmas gifts of good taste.

We look forward to making the SUNCAT service even bigger and better in 2015!

Season’s Greetings from SUNCAT

The SUNCAT team wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year. Thanks to everyone who has contributed and used SUNCAT throughout 2013, and hope you have a great 2014 using the new SUNCAT interface. Here are some weird and wonderful Christmas titles to round off the year with!

Photograph taken from the Mound, Edinburgh at night with a view of Edinburgh's Winter Wonderland

Christmas in Edinburgh, 2013.

  • Country woman Christmas.
  • Bugs Bunny’s Christmas funnies.
  • The Eyes of Christmas.
  • “Trotter” Christmas Annual.
  • Quilt world Christmas annual.
  • Revelry Christmas 1954.
  • Christmas Pie. 1 no.
  • You complete Christmas.
  • Sesame Street Parents christmas.
  • Country accents Christmas cookies.
  • Grown-up’s Christmas annual.
  • Christmas tree lookout.
  • Report on Christmas tree research 1999.
  • Last-minute Christmas: dazzle your holidays!
  • Christmas from the heart : home for the holidays.
  • Our dogs Christmas annual.
  • Toby Ticklem’s Yorkshire annual of comical reading, for everybody’s Christmas.
  • Crochet fantasy’s Christmas special.
  • Roberts’s Christmas Annual for 1870. A most seasonable dish, prepared and served up by the author of “Mr. Smith’s Intended,” etc.
  • Limbs & needles.
  • Nundinæ Literariæ. Fugitive Papers. Christmas Eve; Christmas; Easter; Whitsuntide; Harvest Time; and the Morris Dancers.
  • Waiting in joyful hope : daily reflections for Advent and Christmas.
  • Everybody’s Christmas Annual. [for 1877.] Hell upon Earth [by N. Forsith]; or, the Bard and the Demon. A romaunt of the times. Illustrated by R. Prowse, Junr.
  • Spar from the high flat : a Christmas annual for the Dales / [edited by Robert Dixon].
  • Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.
  • 1825. Blossoms at Christmas and first flowers of the new year. A tocken to remember a friend for 1825.

Have a look in SUNCAT during 2014 for more interesting titles!

Top 10 Christmas ideas for geo-geeks

It’s that time of year again.  Finding the perfect gift for those that we care about and trying to be just a little bit different or going that extra mile to get a gift that really will be cherished.  Increasingly, us map geeks have a host of carto related gifts that we can buy each other.  This post highlights some of them and will hopefully stand as a bit of inspiration for anyone who wants to treat a geo-geek who has been particularly good this year.

First off, you could do worse than looking at the list that i put together last year. Some of the links no longer map(sic) to the correct product, but some do.  Beyond that, the list below should give you some ideas of what i have stumbled across this year:

1. SplashMaps - SplashMaps are REAL outdoor maps designed for clarity and accuracy.  They are Washable, Wearable, All-Weather Fabric maps.  Prices are about £20 for a standard sheet and bit more for a custom Make-a-Map sheet.  Note that Make-a-Map maps cannot be delivered before Christmas.  Please choose the Map voucher for an even more personalised gift. There is a useful image showing the availability of standard maps that would be delivered by christmas.

splash

Splash Maps

 

2. Escape  maps– Available through many sellers on ebay are genuine WW2 escape maps. These tend to be printed on silk and were issued to service men, generally RAF, when they were on missions behind enemy lines. The maps were light and easy to hide in clothing but gave service men routes to escape back to allied territory.  I may have bought one last year and it is beautiful! Buy one and you will own a little piece of history. Prices vary, but around £25.

escape

A little bit of history

3. Jerrys Map – If you don’t know what Jerry’s map is, then please look at this video.  You can buy tiles from the map, these are copies of the original, but as the map is constantly evolving you actually end up with something that is unique. Again, i may have already bought some tiles and they are amazing.  If you happen to be in Edinburgh (perhaps over Hogmanay) then you can see the actual map which is on show at Summerhall.  Tiles are available through Ebay direct from the man himself. Prices vary, but start at less than £5.

JerrysMap

Jerry and the map

4. Bespoke map art– Yes, i know they featured last year, but they have expanded their range and there is something for every type of map geek. Prices range from 35 to over £50.

MapArt

Map Art – in this case a clock!

5. Cartographic T-shirt – stylish -shirts with subtle cartography on them. Nonfictiontees – £12, TFL Beck Tube map – £12, Polar projection goodness – £16,

tshirt

Map on a t-shirt

6. Animal World Map– This is a massive wall map of the World for kids.  Each country is represented by the animals that are associated with it. Although the UK seems not to get any animals, just Big Ben. Surely we could have has sheep, salmon, a Highland Coo or a Haggis! Prices are £21 for an A3 copy and £26 for an A2 copy.

animal

One for the kids

7. Typographic Maps– another “where art meets maps”, these typographic maps show several cities of the World (London, New York, Seattle…..) but features are represented just by their names.  The A1 posters cost £26.

Typo

Typo? What typo?

8. Map Bling– Jewellery with maps on it for him or her?  Sorted. Prices from £15-£50.

Bling

Bling

9. Wapenmap- A Wapenmap is a 3D contoured stainless steel metal map landscape sculpture. Cost is about £18

3D

3D Maps

10. A map – any map.  A true map geek will get a kick out of receiving a map.  The map could be new, old, antique, foreign.  It could link into a trip or anything.  I have received a Terry Wogan weekender map (dont ask), and it is great.  I have given people old maps of where they live and taken pleasure as they analyse how things have changed (Oxfam is a great place to get an old OS or Bartholwmews map)

That’s your lot.  What, no books i hear you say! Well i will put a list of some top map related books tomorrow.

Note – thanks to James Cheshire who blogged his wish list earlier in the month and i have blatantly stolen 1 or 2 ideas from it ;)

Christmas is coming early, user guide posted to all subscribing schools.

The Education team at Ordnance Survey have been working hard over the last few months to produce a comprehensive Digimap for Schools User Guide.  Over the next week, all subscribing schools will receive a printed copy of the new user guide.  This will give you detailed instructions on how to use Digimap for Schools.

You can access a digital version of the user guide online at: http://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/Resources/allstages/userguider.pdf

Also included with the user guide being posted out, is a Christmas quiz, which your pupils can try.  They will need to identify certain places throughout GB and find the grid references and counties where they are located.   It’s suitable for all ages.

Give the quiz a try and please let us know how you and your pupils get on!