I was very excited to hear about Robert Macfarlane’s new book Landmarks, despite the great John Crace’s hilarious scepticism.*

A collection of lost words from the British countryside, the book was written partly in response to the news that the Oxford Junior Dictionary had dropped ‘bluebell’ in favour of ‘block-graph’ and ‘cowslip’ for ‘cut-and-paste’.

I love Twitter. As with most things technological, I’m a relatively late adopter, and I don’t tweet much as I don’t have much worth saying.

But I enjoy being part of the Twitter community, which seems to me on the whole rather more good-natured than Facebook, the bullyboy of social media. Bullying happens on Twitter, of course – we saw some appalling examples during last summer’s Olympics – but it seems to be less common.

I suspect that’s because Twitter is that bit more public – it’s very easy to check up on what someone’s saying without actually following them; and because that challenging 140-character limit means you’re quite likely, mid-expletive, to be told you’re on -3 characters.

When I do tweet, I enjoy trying to get my message across in just 140 characters, without resorting to hideous text-speak: the day I say ‘U’ instead of ‘you’ is the day hell freezes over. And it seems writers of fiction like the same challenge – there are Twitter fiction competitions and festivals springing up all over the place, and The Guardian recently ran a series of short stories by well-known writers using the 140-character limit.

They’d have to go a long way to match Ernest Hemingway, who was once challenged to write a short story using just six words. He came up with a tale using less than twenty-five per cent of the characters available to Twitter users, and of such elegant economy and poignancy that when I recently told it to a friend, her eyes instantly filled with tears. Can anyone beat it? Here it is:

“For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.”

Last year I found myself spending a Sunday morning with an elderly relative (which was fine) watching daytime television (which wasn't).

Amid all the ads for Stannah stairlifts and funeral plans (a word of advice: don't watch daytime TV if you want to retain any sense of optimism about the future) was a documentary about Brian Blessed.

Now, I don't know about you, but Mr Blessed had always been something of a comedic figure to me. A shouty buffoon - a likeable one, but a buffoon nonetheless.

But I found myself increasingly fascinated by the documentary, and gaining more and more respect for him. The man is a proper National Treasure. He's a Shakespearean actor who voices a character in Peppa Pig. He's boxed the Dalai Lama. He's climbed Mount Everest not once, but three times, although he's only reached the summit once. On one attempt in his mid-50s, he climbed higher without oxygen than anyone else of his age, but had to turn back before he reached the top to help rescue another climber. He's a genuine hero.

Outside our office in Woodend, Turnstone Media has a whiteboard. We write and draw stuff on it - daft quotes, silly pictures - just to get people talking, really. And sometimes, we leave it blank in the hope that a fellow tenant will contribute. One morning last week, we came in to find that the immensely talented designer who works in the office directly above us, Callum Nash (@CallumNash) had drawn an extraordinary portrait of the sainted Brian. Just a series of dots and dashes from a green whiteboard pen, but it captured him beautifully. We were thrilled, and tweeted the pic.

Our tweet was retweeted by various people including our lovely friend Fiona Macfarlane (@FiMacFi), and her retweet was favourited by none other than the sainted Brian himself. Don't ask me why, but that feels like a very good way to start the year - 2013 is going to be Blessed.

Collective nouns are curious things. A friend of mine used to swear that the collective noun for a group of golfers was a ‘mouth disease’. For years, I believed him – well, why not? It makes as much sense as an ‘abominable sight of monks’ – and that one is, apparently, genuine. But according to the ever (un)reliable Wikipedia, the correct collective for golfers is a ‘lie’ – which is what, it seems, my friend was doing all along.

But some collective nouns do make sense. Take a look at this picture taken by Tony on Rievaulx Terrace recently – if that’s not a ‘parliament’ of hares, then what is it? There’s even a pair in the middle boxing.

They’re made of willow, woven by the sculptor Emma Stothard (www.emmastothard.com), and they’re on display at the Terrace, a National Trust property, until 4 November, along with pigs, deer, mice, dogs – all willow as well – and one spectacular steel wire mare. Our dog, Truffle, was intrigued and a bit confused by them. But she’s a Labrador, so very easily confused.

If you get chance, go take a look – it’s a lovely walk through the woods, especially at this time of year, and the Terrace really is something else – amazing views over Rievaulx Abbey (which apparently had a pink-painted interior when an abominable sight of Cistercians lived there in the 12th and 13th century – very Homes and Gardens). Rievaulx Terrace was landscaped in the mid-1700s as a bit of an indulgence for Thomas Duncombe, and has two gorgeous follies, one at each end of the lawn. I love a good folly, even though there really can’t be much else more indicative of having too much money and not enough sense – I’m surprised the Kardashians haven’t got one. On your left as you look down at the Abbey is the Tuscan temple, with its domed roof (look in through the window for a canine surprise at the moment): on your right, the Ionic temple, the ceiling of the which is particularly spectacular. 

When the beautiful village of Rosedale Abbey in the heart of the North York Moors National Park gained Walkers are Welcome status, the local business forum was keen to promote it. They asked us for help – one photoshoot and a press release later, and the view from the top of Chimney Bank, along with info about the award, was in the Yorkshire Post, Northern Echo, Press, amongst others, and on a variety of websites.

Hello and welcome to the Turnstone Media & PR blog where we will from time to time bring you our latest news and views.