We’re racing toward summer and the best time of year for gardens and landscapes. There really is nothing better than enjoying the lush and vividly green world in the warmth of the summer sun, be it from a window, in your own garden, on dog walks, or on the golf course (to give you a window into my life there). 

But before that really arrives, this next Genius Loci update comes just after a glorious…

It’s been a little while since my last update - Easter time, some birthdays, and the relentless work of the day job all play the parts, as always. Anyway, since my last update, we crossed over the one-year anniversary of Genius Loci!

It was just over a year ago that we launched the book and it has sped by. The thrill and exhilaration of the launch, and the fact that the book's start was so popular…

Spring is basically here. Or, at least, it is in the landscape, even if the weather maintains a wintry chill. A surefire, tell-tale sign is that even on the most ‘regular’ of dog walks my wife and I have done in recent weeks and days, the pops of colour from spring flowers have started to rise up and present themselves. Even when it has been stormy, incredibly rainy, and just downright sodden through…

With the calendar flipping over to 2022, the one-year anniversary of Genius Loci going live seems much closer than it did a few weeks ago. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long already.

However, I’m still just as passionate as ever in spreading the word and making sure the book becomes a reality. I’ll plead your tolerance right from the off here, and ask if you can keep sharing it and spreading…

Winter landscapes are some of my absolute favourites - in real life and in games. Despite being relatively empty (the use of ‘relatively’ is important when looking at winter lands) there’s often a deceptive amount to actually see, identify, and appreciate.

I often refer back to the Frederick Gibberd quote “If someone tells me he is a keen gardener I ask to see his garden in February. Has it become…

I’ve mentioned before that one of my best friends, Freddy, and I play games together online regularly - sometimes as a pair, and often as a three with another close friend. However, Freddy and I have been exploring the glorious and chaotic world of Far Cry 6 at the moment, taking in the beautiful island-nation of Yara. On a recent trip through the tropical landscape, Freddy offered to write my…

I’m not religious at all but I have always been interested in religious, sacred, and spiritual landscapes - this mainly comes from my interest in meaning, narratives, and stories in landscape design. From sacred olive groves in the Mediterranean to western Christian cemeteries, and from ancient sacred landscapes (like Stonehenge in my previous update) to natural landscapes which humans have imbued…

Autumn is well and truly here now, isn’t it? It’s been a pretty grim week here in the West Country, and my reward for starting my regular days in the office last week was one of the wettest walks home in my life. Thanks, weather. However, this just marks the turning of the seasonal wheels once more, and summer feels far away already.

Just before summer did finally leave us, my wife and I, and Bella…

I’m not long back from a trip that was perfect book inspiration - or ‘bookspiration’ as I’ve come to call it. It was a jolly away for another wedding (congrats again, Dave & Karen), but one that felt more of a getaway and adventure.

Staying just outside of Cookstown in Mid Ulster, Northern Ireland, we didn't fully realise the fortune of our choice, and the beauty of the location we chose to stay…

It’s supposed to be the most gloriously sunny and warm time of year but both have proved somewhat elusive across our UK landscapes - particularly in any great measure. It’s been a pretty unreliable summer.

It’s a time of walking in fields of wheat or barley for me, my wife, and the dog - something so evocative and also a key bit of iconography from my favourite film, Gladiator - and also outdoor…

The dust has settled after Genius Loci’s blistering start to its crowdfunding journey, and I’ve been quite busy hustling in the background to try and help things along in other ways.

Sometimes this takes the form of endless note-taking and compiling just so I can record ideas, or collating real-world images from visits or dog walks here in the Somerset countryside that I can use for inspiration…

It’s been almost precisely four years since I first emailed a games website about writing about games – from this came my first video game landscape article. It set off a tremendous domino effect and journey that at times felt like a slog, at others a breeze, but which ultimately has led me to this point: launching the crowdfunding campaign for Genius Loci. It’s incredibly humbling, exciting, and…