Whats the weather like near you?

[Whoppa Choppa]

8 hours ago, Big J said:

 

My four years there was a real eye opener. You think the weather is bad in Scotland, but just west of Edinburgh (where we lived for 13 years) it's a lot less severe than the SW.

 

Summer was never guaranteed in Scotland though. You'd get to September sometimes and realise that you'd only had a handful of days over 20c. I swim outdoors a lot and recall one year where the lake temperatures didn't exceed 15c. We had 24c here this year at the end of May!

 

Everyone lives for the summer in Devon. Those hot, balmy days that you invariably get where the county looks lush and everyone is happy. You then just spend the remaining 9 months of the year in wellies washing mud out of every orifice, counting the days until the rain stops, the wind settles down and being outside isn't some form of purgatory! 😄

 

I was out with the missus this afternoon on the gravel bikes. Had this lake to ourselves, and again saw a white tailed eagle. Saw one car in 1.5hrs.

 

You've hit ze nail on ze head

[Bolt]

If you’re native to Devon, you don’t think of it’s weather as ‘severe’, it’s just what you think of as being ‘the weather’ (the same a steep, narrow, winding country roads are just ‘roads’).

[Big J]

4 hours ago, Bolt said:

If you’re native to Devon, you don’t think of it’s weather as ‘severe’, it’s just what you think of as being ‘the weather’ (the same a steep, narrow, winding country roads are just ‘roads’).

 

Maybe, but it's a bit like growing up in a cage and thinking that's normal too.

 

It's just objectively miserable. You don't quite realise how much it negatively affects your life until you get away from it. Being able to plan an outdoor activity without having to worry about rain and wind, or covering everything you own in mud.

 

I know that I'm negative as f**k about the West Country, but it left a deep and lasting impression on me, and it wasn't a good one.

[peds]

Observing this conversation with an occasional chuckle from the west coast of Ireland. 

[Big J]

1 hour ago, peds said:

Observing this conversation with an occasional chuckle from the west coast of Ireland. 

 

Haha! You have my sympathies. Very much the same issues there, albeit at least (I assume) that it's not filled with people who have retired there from London and who object to any kind of rural work!

[peds]

1 hour ago, Big J said:

 (I assume) that it's not filled with people who have retired there from London and who object to any kind of rural work!

Jeez, you are right there. Okay, you win. 

[Bolt]

5 hours ago, Big J said:

 

Maybe, but it's a bit like growing up in a cage and thinking that's normal too.

 

It's just objectively miserable. You don't quite realise how much it negatively affects your life until you get away from it. Being able to plan an outdoor activity without having to worry about rain and wind, or covering everything you own in mud.

 

I know that I'm negative as f**k about the West Country, but it left a deep and lasting impression on me, and it wasn't a good one.

Possibly….., but I first left ‘the cage’ when I was in my late teens.  I lived and worked all over the UK, depending on where the opportunities arise, so I know a thing or two about working in all weathers.

 

Maybe it’s my formative years that have resulted in me never spending too much time worrying about wind, rain or mud.

[Bolt]

3 hours ago, Big J said:

 

…..at least (I assume) that it's not filled with people who have retired there from London and who object to any kind of rural work!

In 100% agreement there though.  The imported residents (and they are not limited to Londoners) to the West Country are the main reason I don’t regret leaving!

[Big J]

2 minutes ago, Bolt said:

Possibly….., but I first left ‘the cage’ when I was in my late teens.  I lived and worked all over the UK, depending on where the opportunities arise, so I know a thing or two about working in all weathers.

 

Maybe it’s my formative years that have resulted in me never spending too much time worrying about wind, rain or mud.

 

I take your point, and I am much the same. Spent my childhood outside, fishing, cycling, climbing trees and such like.

 

I'm not saying that it's impossible to be outside in all weathers in the UK, only that it's not very pleasant. And then when you're on a forestry job, a night of heavy rain is the difference between the work being a breeze or a total nightmare. Similar for many outdoor trades. But 4 years of forestry in Devon scarred me. It was really good fun when the weather went our way, but more often than not, it coincided with summer when all the lardy-da's wanted a complete stop because of nesting pigeons or other such nonsense.

 

The weather still obviously affects things here as well, but really very rarely. Given that I largely work indoors now, my primary interaction with the outdoors is through cycling, and it's very rarely the kind of weather that makes you rethink whether to go out or not. Whereas I was in the UK for two weeks at Easter and it rained solidly for ten days, including two named storms.

 

I fully realise that moaning about the weather is pointless. I should try to be more positive about it, so I will say that I greatly appreciate that we have defined seasons here, that it rarely rains, that it's often very sunny and that the sandy soil means that even if it does rain, it's not muddy

[Big J]

Unusually warm here today at 16c. Quite grey, but it isn't usually this warm here in late October. 

 

Still decent chanterelle picking to be had too. My wife and I got over a kilo this morning.