ŷ������

In the course of a year Harrison took four rainy walks, in different seasons and different parts of England. She intersperses her observations with facts and legends about the rain (the term “old saw�� appears three times!), including quotes from historical weather guides and poems. I have very little to say about this; it has the occasional nice line, but is a very understated nature/travel book overall. The most noteworthy moment is when (at the very end) she remembers scattering her mother’s ashes on a Dartmoor tor. I most liked the argument that it’s important to not just go out in good weather, but to adapt to nature in all its moods:

“there’s something salutary about the way our best endeavours can still be scotched by something so simple and primordial as the weather: it keeps us in our place somehow, reminds us that we are still part of the natural world, and not above it.��

“if you only go out on sunny days you only see half the picture, and remain somehow untested and callow; whereas discovering that you can withstand all the necessary and ordinary kinds of weather creates a satisfying feeling of equanimity in the face of life’s vicissitudes that may or may not be rational, but is real nonetheless.��

“I can choose now to overcome the impulse for comfort and convenience that insulates us not only from the bad in life but from much of the good. I think we need the weather, in all its forms, to feel fully human �� which is to say, an animal.��