This week Winter arrived …. well proper Autumn at least. I can tell you the time, it was 16:37 pm on Wednesday, and as I walked down the street, in the mild air temperatures that we have gotten used to over the last few months, there was this sudden cold gust in my face.
I looked up from the reverie that usually accompanies my walks, and sure enough, scudding across the evening skies, driven by the zephyr that had broken my trance like thoughts, were dark clouds from the North East. They obviously bode nothing good, and sure enough there was no pity sitting in those dark clouds.
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| Winter Can Strike Suddenly In Britain |
I looked up from the reverie that usually accompanies my walks, and sure enough, scudding across the evening skies, driven by the zephyr that had broken my trance like thoughts, were dark clouds from the North East. They obviously bode nothing good, and sure enough there was no pity sitting in those dark clouds.
Since that night, the temperatures have been markedly lower, and the central heating, long dormant, has kicked into life, even though the thermostat is set at a miserly 14c.
What makes it all the worse, is the knowledge that the clocks are about to be moved back an hour, thus adding darkness to my evening trips (the mornings are already dark when I get up), as in a hang over from pre-war Britain (and I mean 1916 WWI Britain), the farce of keeping farmers in Aberdeen from working in the dark (News flash, they have electricity in Scotland nowadays), is played out at the expense of the rest of us.
The British Standard Time experiment, in the late 1960’s conclusively proved that GMT+1 through out the year, saved more lives than the current arrangements (even after adjustments for the effects of drink driving legislation), but our unrepresentative's in Parliament still voted by 366 to 81 votes to cancel the successful experiment.
The latest attempts in 2012 to reintroduce double summer time, was filibustered out of Parliament by opponents – led by a Scottish Nationalist Angus MacNeil, MP for the Western Isles … talk about the tail wagging the dog. There are 27,684 people up there, and they can stop the 65 million of us benefiting from the change that double summer time would bring us (bring on Scottish independence is what I say) … thus dooming us to another decade or so (on top of the 40+ years already endured) of depression in the Winter months. .
So for me, as I contemplate the dark, wet, cold, months ahead, this has been a gloomy week ending.
What makes it all the worse, is the knowledge that the clocks are about to be moved back an hour, thus adding darkness to my evening trips (the mornings are already dark when I get up), as in a hang over from pre-war Britain (and I mean 1916 WWI Britain), the farce of keeping farmers in Aberdeen from working in the dark (News flash, they have electricity in Scotland nowadays), is played out at the expense of the rest of us.
The British Standard Time experiment, in the late 1960’s conclusively proved that GMT+1 through out the year, saved more lives than the current arrangements (even after adjustments for the effects of drink driving legislation), but our unrepresentative's in Parliament still voted by 366 to 81 votes to cancel the successful experiment.
The latest attempts in 2012 to reintroduce double summer time, was filibustered out of Parliament by opponents – led by a Scottish Nationalist Angus MacNeil, MP for the Western Isles … talk about the tail wagging the dog. There are 27,684 people up there, and they can stop the 65 million of us benefiting from the change that double summer time would bring us (bring on Scottish independence is what I say) … thus dooming us to another decade or so (on top of the 40+ years already endured) of depression in the Winter months. .
So for me, as I contemplate the dark, wet, cold, months ahead, this has been a gloomy week ending.
I am guessing that you live in Lancashire or Greater Manchester. It's amazing how much colder Manchester is to areas on the flood plain just a few metres lower are.
ReplyDeleteI live nearer the coast and its been a nice week. 'Winters Boney Grip' is rather loose round here in Southport.
You have a point, but even so, I felt the wind cut through me for the first time ..... and it won't stop for another five months.
DeleteThanks for the comment.
Kind of Update: So far, apart from the rain (and floods for parts of the country) the winter has not been the worst for 30 yrs that was predicted in the Autumn. Fingers crossed that we have a mild January, February and March eh?
ReplyDelete