[Sundae]

This thread is open to anyone who loves their country, or bits of it.

Personally, I love England and the UK and the British Isles (gets larger with each name.)

On my List Of Nice Things, pretty much everything is Anglocentric.
I'm not a xenophobe. I love travelling. I've been to many different places - more than many friends and colleagues actually. But I love home.

I love our history.
Standing stones, Roman ruins, baths and walls and thatch and wattle.

I love our literature. We were lucky that America spread our mother tongue across the globe. But as perverse as our language is, the beauty shines through in places like India, Japan, Malaysia and Korea. I'm fond of Shakespeare, but fonder yet of our poets. U A Fanthorpe, Larkin, Dylan Thomas, R A Thomas and all them and everything.

Not to forget our authors, Tolkein, Orwell, Christie, Sayers, Ian Banks, Kate Atkinson.

And not to forget our landscape. My goodness. What an extraordinary gem.
The secret of these hills was stone, and cottages
Of that stone made,
And crumbling roads
That turned on sudden hidden villages

It's actually a sad poem about the encroachment of pylons on the landscape.
But I've always found the opening lines beautiful.
I looked them up to check I had them right, but they're pretty much embedded in my head.

Our pageants, our ceremonies, our Royalty (despite not being a Monarchist.)
Cream teas, smoked kippers, curries, stiff courtesy, free healthcare, tepid acceptance, gobby cabbies, pearly kings and queens, breaking into song in the pub (without karoake) love and life and laughter and England always losing.

I LOVE IT.