Constant Change

Landscapes are constantly changing. Sometimes people are the cause of change but landscapes also change in spite of us. Mostly we try to keep things more or less as they are, as arable fields, pasture, gardens and so on. But all the while natural succession is waiting in the wings, ready to take the vegetation forward to a more mature stage as soon as we relax our grip. The whole gamut of succession runs from bare soil, or even bare rock, at one end to mature woodland at the other.

— Patrick Whitefield, How to Read the Landscape

Explaining the Landscape

Everything we see in the landscape is the result of a complex of different causes. We don’t like complexity. We would always much rather put something down to a single cause. It’s never true but it’s easier on our brains.

— Patrick Whitefield, How to Read the Landscape