Rugby in Regent's Park, London, late January.

Skiing on Columbus Avenue, New York, the same day.

One of my students lent this to me and I loved it. It's one of those rare books that's funny for grown ups and children, and it has pictures on every page, so it's not too daunting for new readers. I especially like it because the story is told through emails . If any of you own or are in charge of a dragon, don't forget to tell me. 

Yesterday it snowed in London, and this pond froze over - slightly - you could still hear the water under the surface.

 The phrase 'winter and rough weather' comes from Shakespeare's play, As You like It. This is another of his descriptions of winter, in a song from Love's Labour's Lost:

You'll notice that it doesn't sound very comfortable - well, apart from the 'merry note' of the owl. That's because in Shakespeare's time there was no central heating, no way of travelling except on foot or on horseback, and no hot chocolate - and in any case you'd have had to wait for the milk to unfreeze.

 

WHEN icicles hang by the wall 
  And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, 
And Tom bears logs into the hall, 
  And milk comes frozen home in pail; 
When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,         5
Then nightly sings the staring owl 
                Tu-whoo! 
Tu-whit! tu-whoo! A merry note! 
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. 
  
When all around the wind doth blow,  10
  And coughing drowns the parson's saw, 
And birds sit brooding in the snow, 
  And Marian's nose looks red and raw; 
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl-- 
Then nightly sings the staring owl  15
                Tu-whoo! 
Tu-whit! tu-whoo! A merry note! 
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

You woke up a bit late, the car broke down, you had to go back for forgotten sports kit, homework, a sibling - if you happen to be late for school it'll usually be for one of these reasons and all you have to deal with is a stressed parent. John Patrick Norman McH has to fight his way through all kinds of adventures with weather and wild animals. This book is fun to read aloud with someone else, several times over. You can take turns being the innocent schoolboy and the increasingly irate cane-wielding school-master - and it has a most satisfactory ending.

Reading letters addressed to other people is like listening in to other people's conversations - not good manners and not a good idea. Remember what happens to Lucy in The Voyage of the Dawntreader? Yet for thousands of years people have been saving letters and leaving them behind for later generations to read. We would know a great deal less about the past if we didn't have letters as evidence. One thing we can learn from all those documents is that human nature doesn't change. A recently published book, called 'More Letters of Note' includes an angry letter from a copper merchant who felt disrespected in 1750BC and a delightful one to the television show Blue Peter, from a nine-year-old boy who grew up to become a doctor. The scrap of hard to read writing above is from The Paston Letters, a fascinating collection of letters from various members of the same family spanning most of the fifteenth century.

This is the first in a series of really exciting mystery stories set in the reign of Henry V111. It's definitely for older readers, but it's in modern English  , so easier to understand than the Sherlock Holmes stories. If you enjoy detective stories and happen to be studying the Tudor period, you'll find it brings history thrillingly alive.

The summer's coming to an end , and this is probably the last chance most of us will have to get to a beach. Unfortunately the problem of plastic rubbish in the sea isn't going away. If you've been to the seaside this summer you'll have seen the evidence: abandoned plastic bottles, drifting plastic bags , unidentifiable bits of broken plastic. These last are especially worrying, because the rest of them has probably already choked or poisoned some kind of marine wildlife.

Look up www.plastictides.org to learn about four people who are doing everything they can to prevent more damage.

One thing we can all do is try to use less plastic. This is how much I managed to collect in my own house yesterday:

That took ten minutes to collect. it will all be recycled - but the world would be a healthier place without it.

Anyway - have a good end of the summer -

Rachel

This summer I've become a devoted Discworld fan - not quite  enough to camp outside a bookstore when the last - postumously published - novel  came out last week , but I do love them. Unfortunately you have to be quite old to enjoy them ; the language is complicated and you really need to have read lots of other famous authors first . This one, however, is just good fun. It includes some familiar Terry Pratchett themes - such as 'the trousers of time' - and it makes you think, but it's easy to understand.
If  you've read your way through the entire Cherub series (I love that too) - this might be an acceptable next book.

Last weekend was the RSPB Big Wild Sleep-out when families all over the UK spent the night outside, finding out what wildlife appears at night.  I decided to watch day time wildlife instead. This is some I found not very far from my house.
Most of my regular letter-writers now know my real-life 'Owl and Pussycat' story. (There was an owl, and there was a cat : those are the facts . Also the owl was still around a few days later).

Don't try this at home. Don't try any of it - advertising your party on social media, climbing into people's gardens at night, playing with swords....Also I don't really recommend reading it. Shakespeare didn't mean his plays to be read. He meant them to be performed. Anyone can enjoy the 30 minute  Animated Shakespeare version ; if you want to see the whole play, watch the 1996 Baz Luhrmann film.
There are many things I don't like about this play. It makes you embarrassed to be an adult, for one thing. For another, I dont believe the great love would have lasted. Romeo and Juliet get married knowing nothing about each other except that they're both good looking and none of their parents will approve.
Of course there is some beautiful poetry. But the parts I like are the little glimpses of real human behaviour. Catch Juliet trying to sound casual when finding out Romeo's name (Act 1 Scene5 lines128 onwards ) - or the Capulets organising a party at the beginning of Act IV Scene 4, before everything goes horribly wrong.