Amen. I sometimes miss those balmy Auckland summer garden nights, but not the mass scrunching of molluscs underfoot. City of snails.

We’re in town, in a damp spot near the Heathcote River, so gets quite cold and frosty – though not as frequently crunching as the frosts out at Dunsandel. Our…

No worries, Ross! To quote myself from earlier:

My only (mildly) serious accident was being knocked unconscious as an adult due to safety glasses fogging up. [Touches every wooden object…

I’m hinting about wanting someone with a licence to bring blasting powder for my next birthday party plus a turducken for dinner…

I’m glad you added “for dinner” on the end of that sentence. Although “Blasting powder… plus a turducken” would certainly make for a memorable highlight…

I've never had this problem with chocolate truffles, ever.

Isn't that the title of a book by Alexander McCall Smith? The less-famous companion to The Careful Use of Compliments.

For truffles, my (sometimes vague and unreliable!) memory is you need a soil that leans alkaline. Our soil tested too acidic.

Ah, thanks for that Rob. I should probably investigate further out of scientific thoroughness. Truffles sound as though they'd be nice to eat; I've never actually…

Good golly! Are you building a rockery, eyrie or fell-field?

My family home on Moncks Spur was on a very rocky site. The beautiful rounded rocks were turned into retaining walls, steps, sitting-places, and path-markers. The…

You outdo yourself, sir!

(With apologies for the long lecture on the physics of shelter belts during your visit...)

Truffles will theoretically grow under the English oaks, holly oaks, and chestnuts. I’m just not sure that in practice they will actually grow in the dry & stony Dunsandel soil. The only place where there is reliable moisture is the wastewater disposal field, but – I’m guessing…

If you ever find yourself in Fairbanks, Alaska, be sure to visit the wondrous Museum of the North. They have lots of interesting stuff about wintering over near the…

That’s Swedish; maybe that’s why you couldn’t quite get your head around it :-)

Oh, and it was supposed to be a response to the poem you posted much earlier...

You'll love…

So am I! In my experience Norway seems like the only place that packs as much scenery in as New…

Precisely a year since our 2 week self-drive road trip through western Norway. Spent the final day/night in the very relaxed, laid-back pretty little city of ... yep, you…

Great post, David. Whatever you say about seasonal gloom, it feels like summertime, when I hear you “rise up singing”, like this.

Thanks so much, Ben! I must say it's been great to have a break from building and finally have a chance to put pen to…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acNnq8pwbC4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIQTodV0AJ8

but it was going to keep getting colder for months ... the Syrian refugees (technically no longer 'refugees' hooray!) that Lisa is working with were unwilling to go out yesterday because it was too…

I'm reminded of Russel Howard, who has a similarly surreal take on queening.

https://youtu.be/muPPpPCLkDg?t=60

(about a minute in, video starts at the start for me)

Just gonna leave this here

Norwegian satire: I loved this! Very much the sense of humour that I encountered and enjoyed during my brief visit.

nzlemming wrote:

David, your child scares me.

Join the club! (It's kind of like the Electrocution Club but you don't have to…

Round our way we call that "mild insanity"...

"I wish Mummy wasn't dead! Ah...well."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk

A…

Bloody brilliant, Rob! I must say that it's especially worth knowing the word mbuki-mvuki exists — just so I don't use it in a sentence accidentally...

It’s weird, Robyn, but if you read this aloud you can almost figure it out just knowing English:

__"I [something] autumn. That is my…

It was specifically Beverly Hill I had in mind.

Thank you so much for your beautiful and evocative descriptions of Norway — I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. (And you really should get some sort of award for best use of AWESOMER in a poetic/architectural piece of writing).

... waiting in the terminal I was so tempted to jump on a bus and try to go Home, back to the pre-quake city. Perhaps it might still be there?

Gosh I've had that feeling too, Lilith, coming back to Christchurch airport after a couple of months away.…

Thanks so much, Fiona — hugely appreciated! Now I'll go mad looking on Google Street view.…

Here’s more evidence of vemod being Swedish with the author’s Swedish wife claiming it was probably the “most Swedish” word she knew.

Very interesting! As I understand the word ‘vemod’ exists in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and (sort of) German (as ‘Wehmut’).

But the descriptions given in that discussion…

the Swedish and Norwegian languages are very similar, enough so that my knowledge of Swedish can help me get by In Norway.

Now, the more interesting difference (for me) is the way in which the languages are spoken. Norwegians speak with roller coaster like inflections…

Wikipedia informs: "Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants."

Not sure if that sentence passes the intelligibility test, tho...

jeez some people have to put a money value on everything, politicians are leading this charge to the real detriment of future generations.
You sound very devoted to your children, beautiful.…

If you'll excuse me for butting in I'd suggest lower Highfield…

Surely that's where the høstens vemod comes in handy "oh, but I'm going to die". No need to mention that it's likely to happen some time in the distant future.

I love the Polly-tales :) Hopefully Polly will not have…

I’m reminded of Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa.

A philosopher-blogger has coined the word [[http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20151030-have-you-ever-felt-solastalgia| solastalgia, (solace+nostalgia) meaning “the distress caused by…

It certainly sounds like [[http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/southerly-hostens-vemod/?p=362515#post362515|Paul Brislen is halfway…

You're quite right, Chris — I should have spotted that...

When I went to live in the US "home" meant Dunedin, after 20 years when I moved back it somehow…

to be fair these treats involve aged butterscotch

I'm afraid that Polly has inadvertently picked up some engineer's language from her old Dad. We've had a few conversations about how children are held to higher language standards than incorrigible old codgers such as myself. So far with moderate success.

Emma Hart wrote:…

BTW, what is Polly's charge out rate? We've got some work that needs doing around here.

I reckon I know exactly the bit you mean, but I can't remember what it was called. I shall look it up and email.

Timaru, though.…

Thank you so much, Hebe. We had a difficult couple of weeks with the refusal-to-leave-home phase,…

I don't think you need to worry, Ian! Young Polly has a very useful conventional streak to her brain that enables her to fit in very well in school (in…

I fell so insanely in love with the grassy roofs, Carol. I have several times suggested them for people doing new builds in CHCH — to a few seconds of enthusiasm followed by…

Perfect for a state of mind; for me the loss of innocence about the nature of the land we live on. As well as for the phantom city, the one where I am waiting…

I definitely have hiraeth in spades then, Paul — for pre-quake Christchurch. And I've met a lot of former Christchurchers who suffer from it too. A very useful word indeed for us.

Love the sound of your inventive and surprising children, and very sad at Polly's fear of her home disappearing again. I'm so happy that you have broken through to the…

Thanks Jonathan! I was quite worried about that cheese — but strangely my kids scoffed it down without a problem. Every so often I've thought that I should stir myself to find out why it smelt like that.

"homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. It is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, or an earnest desire[ for the Wales of the past.

Oxford and Merriam Webster…

Ah yes, well there is that too, I suppose!

I've just been thinking of you, Emma Hart, as I've been editing a short story of mine set in Timaru. A piece of literature highly respectful of Timaru, I might…

Nicely played sir!

Thank you, Carol! We already have a word for that in English – Presbyterianism...

Thanks Hilary! Very kind of you to say that!

Speaking unscientifically (I didn’t exactly do any statistically-valid data gathering) I had the impression that Norway has many of the positive social attitudes that I remember from my childhood in New Zealand.…

Well that certainly makes autumn sound like the pleasantest season. I admit to feeling quite spiritually uplifted after reading these words...

Next you’ll be saying Roald Amundsen only went to the South Pole looking for the Sun!

But I do love the picture of the little one-legged Amish girl hopping to school – such tenacity – and…

Very sorry to hear about a fellow sufferer of a non-existent phenomenon! I’m hoping for an illuminating response from either the Norwegian embassy or the Public-Address-reading Finns. If not in the Finnish language then surely the put-upon…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3duWfTNOIc

P.S. People keep sending amusing messages to the effect that it sounds like a lot of screw-heads get stripped in these videos. But Polly is using an impact-driver not a drill. That’s the way…