You might think it's a bit early to be reviewing the year but I thought I'd say my piece while we are still enjoying it. I know that everyone has their own view of the weather but from where I am sitting it has been wonderful. Spring was mild, there were no high winds or hard frosts to damage the blossom and we had a good set. The crop of hedgerow fruits and berries is the best I have seen for a long time and the birds will have plenty to keep them going this winter when it comes. There were no cutting East winds to burn the first growth of grass off so the farmers have had a good year for silage, most have taken three cuts of grass in good condition. This will be a good help with the winter feed which is more expensive than ever. They need all the help they can get this year as due to the mythical 'global price' of milk, farm gate prices per litre have plummeted. Incidentally, why the price of liquid milk in China should affect us escapes me.
We didn't have a Flaming June or a very hot summer but on the whole it has been good, no excessive heat and an almost complete absence of thunderstorms. Plenty of fine days for outings or just having a walk round the town. It sometimes got a bit irksome hearing the weather forecasters talking about temperatures in the mid twenties when we all knew they were talking about the South of England. We are always cooler because of our position on the foothills of the Pennines.
The first half of September was the driest since 1960 and the rest of it doesn't look too bad as I write this on the 28th. Plenty of calm and relatively mild days and no early frosts. Mind you, as I keep reminding everyone, the Autumn Equinox was on the 23rd of September and one thing we can usually be fairly certain of is that the equinoctial gales are lurking out there somewhere! We'll deal with that when it comes.
As for winter, who knows? Long distance weather forecasting is a lottery and even the Meteorological Office has stopped issuing them. Remember when they promised us a blazing summer and it was one of the worst on record? I can well remember in the late 1960s when Vera and I took the first fortnight's holiday of our married life, we went to Ayr with the promise from the forecasters of two week's sunshine. It rained all the time and I swear there were icebergs floating down the Clyde! I shame to say I forced three miserable daughters into the water one day for a holiday snap. They have never forgiven me.
So let's be grateful for what we've had and reflect that it has kept our lovely countryside and trees beautifully green all year. We sometimes forget how lucky we are in Barlick, there can be few houses in the town more than ten minutes from green fields. I can't imagine living in a city....
Bathing Belles at Ayr in a very cold sea!
