who tried to fix the chaos of fire and storm head and rain and empires of foliage and flower in pigment and ash

Beautiful – more o that in 09 please, Craig.

I really enjoyed your blog David, but perhaps your awful cold meant your view of things was slightly jaundiced!

Well, you may have a point. That, and the awful weather, and the near-complete lack of sunlight...

Jolisa wrote:

How did you resist the temptation to sit young…

I was in the UK in July – the height of the holiday season – and certainly didn’t feel the place was too crowded. On the contrary, I kept marvelling that…

I think the great childrens' authors are those who've discovered that you don't get the enduring light without the dark.

Craig, I'd agree completely — although Arthur Ransome didn't see fit to drown any of his unsupervised little sailors, and is still a great children's author. (BTW David, how did…

The word 'soporific' had been censored from the 'Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies'. As a six year old, I remember finding it to be a very useful word, and felt grateful to Potter for exposing me to it. It's still a useful word, come to think of it.

If…

It may have changed now, but I was often surprised by the emptiness of some of the most verdant stretches of Britain — North Wales, for example. It was as if it hadn't occurred to the city-dwellers what lay beyond their boundaries.

I wait in anticipation of the day that…

Despite the superficial anthropomorphism, Potter's critters are based on her observation of real animals, and it's this often dark authenticity that ensures their ongoing appeal.

I'd recommend laying hands on Linda Lear's Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, and wasn't as surprised as I should have been to find out…

Cornwall-Orkney: 50°-59° N.

Muckle Flugga!

Interesting how Beatrix Potter's unmodified work retains its appeal, while the numerous attempts at bowdlerisation are quickly forgotten.

Very glad to hear it. We saw some abridged versions of Potter's books that were shockingly dumbed-down.

The word 'soporific' had been censored from the 'Tale of the Flopsy…

What's the difference between an Australian and the engines on a 747?

The engines stop whining when the plane lands at Heathrow.

Actually, Kiwis in England aren't particularly seen as whingers – they're normally seen as bar staff.…

I can safely say it's morons like you who give Kiwi's a reputation here as a bunch of smug, self-satisfied whingers.

Wait, Kiwis in England are seen as whingers?

How ironic...

Despite the…

It's called smingeing, and it's every bit as nasty as it sounds when you say it.

Looks like Russell is just trying to get in early for "Word of the Year" for 2009...

Can you be smug and whinge at the same time? It sounds quite complicated.

We were just taken to school on how to do it.

Can you be smug and whinge at the same time? It sounds quite complicated.

It's called smingeing, and it's every bit as nasty as it sounds when you say it.

What a wanker! Please don't ever come back. As someone who spent 15 years living in New Zealand (and loving it) before coming home to England, I can safely say it's morons like you who give Kiwi's [sic] a reputation here as a bunch of smug, self-satisfied…

What a wanker! Please don't ever come back. self-satisfied whingers get a life !!

I have no opinion about the lake district, but ta for the pix of the boat, David – amazed those…

I reckon NZ's about an F-stop brighter than the UK.

An old boss of mine worked as a technician at Kodak in his younger days and told me that film spec'd for this part of the world was different from the northern hemisphere because the light is brighter and "bluer".…

England has been ascrabble with humans for a very long time and the land shows it- yes, there are the surprising inhabited-for aeons-but still-themselves- places (the Yorkshire Moors for me)-but it is majorly
human-riddled, and waaay too crowded-

I loved the Christmas I spent in Cornwall with Kiwi friends, in…

I've been to England & Scotland (ancestral places both, and I deeply love some of the fiction & poetry, art & architecture – not to mention music- therefrom)half a dozen times. I understand the body language in Scotland...…

making Scottish-type noises of disappointment. "Och, it must be nearly a metre tall, Callum, there's no way we could climb over a wall thatheight..."

Come on...these are Scots we're talking about. They'd probably try to head-butt the thing. (Wi' a cry of 'Nac Mac Feegle!!' for the fellow Pratchett fans)...…

I recall an English uncle being surprised at what he termed the "height of the sky in New Zealand". He compared antipodean skies to a cathedral, whereas he thought that England had been built "with an old-fashioned nine-foot stud".

Thank you so much for this. I was sentenced to 18…

Wasdale, Eskdale and Ennerdale are all much further from the madding crowd and much better looking. Also there's a great minature steam train from Ravenglass to Eskdale for Bob…

Apart from anything else, it would be an opportunity to catch up on the landscape of some of England's most interesting dead people

Then again, I know someone who was quite put out that Leeds was much nicer — and the people not quite so morose — than Alan Bennett…

When I did it, within the last decade, speculation of a writer's mental state or proccupations was very much avoided – as in "There's *no* way you can know that for certain so don't go there and concentrate on the effect achieved (or not) by…

Hardly surprising when both of his parents are owls.

20 degrees already today

It's just that there were too many people in far too small a space.

You can get eleven people in a mini, if you put one in the boot. You can even drive like that. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. I think it works on the same odd physical principle…

"Our tall Northumbrian skies"

Tall compared to Hadrian's Wall, I expect. One imagines the Picts rushing up to it, and then making Scottish-type noises of disappointment. "Och, it must be nearly a metre tall, Callum, there's no way we could climb over a wall that height..."

You are a master…

When in the North I was surprised, considering the population density, how empty much of Northumberland can be...

I was under the impression that every place on earth had much the same amount of sky over it (whether visible or not).

The best part about coming back to New Zealand, back when I lived in Tokyo in the late 80s, was walking from the old International Terminal at…

You see, in that recent tourism video from our great leader... while many people…

P.S. Sleepless Bob-the-Baby wants to send this important message: fbguiyytvh5wyw3jw3-i/iojjyaedfikep;sep;ldrdrdroldrfcgvg

The Lake District is one of the few reasons I will keep returning to the UK. I think it's beauty is astounding, but like a good wine it probably can't be appreciated in a quick sip like stroll around Coniston.

Bob-the-Baby really has grown and shows such good taste

One advantage of that sky, is it's impossible to get sunburnt

Can confirm we have NO COMPLAINTS of sunburn...

What I liked was, we could go from castle to steel works museum to cathedral to castle in minutes.

But it is all made a little less enjoyable by the need to shoulder twenty smoking Brits out…

I recall an English uncle being surprised at what he termed the "height of the sky in New Zealand". He compared antipodean skies to a cathedral, whereas he thought that England had been built "with an old-fashioned nine-foot stud".

Ah. So the gift for description is a family thing. That's…