4/19/2004: Public artwork changes via text message

[CzinZumerzet]

It's wishful thinking Jag!! But seriously now, the sun shines in England, honest it does, and we have serious heat some days. I don't have immediate access to met office records but I remember last summer we had long periods of 26-29C during July and August and I had a melanoma removed which must surely prove something!!

Watch Wimbledon and see the sweltering miasma of pollution and sunshine, and most years we have the tension of 'will the rain stop long enough to finish the tournament'. It has never gone into extra time...yet, and that's in June.

I know how ghastly some of the more modern architecture is, the concrete jungles of the sixties are a blight on many towns and cities. Lots are being torn down and what do we get in their place but more and higher and windier inner cities where people's needs are designed out. It's one of the reasons I left London, that and the sparrows coughing in the trees.

I wish I knew Switzerland but it is years since I went there, and that was a few days hopping back and forth over the Alps from Chamonix Mont Blanc. I think it must have been winter because all my memory can find is snowfields and fondue. It was so magical skiing through brilliant sunshine and the cleanest biting air ever.

Next time you visit, try the Ribble valley in Yorkshire. It's truly outstanding and a gift to a photographer, you can still cross the valley in a Roman aqueduct. You need a boat for that, naturally.
Cheers!