Return To Gurn

 WHEN I TOLD MY FRIEND that the forecast for my first 10 days in the Lakes was rain, she commiserated.

I laughed! I said I would carry a glass with me at all times, then I could never complain that the glass was half-empty or even just half-full! My cup would be overflowing constantly with nature’s watery wealth!

There may be 20 days of rain ahead for all I know, but in any case, I’m happy. Here is the view from my bedroom window. You can’t say fairer than that, can you?

I like the rain, for so many reasons and in so many ways. I like to say that there are two possible ways of reporting on the current state of the weather in the Lakes:

1) It’s raining;
2) It looks like rain!

It’s true that it rains a lot in the Lake District. It’s raining now. But hey, like, y’know, where do the lakes come from, right? You want lakes, ya gotta kinda wanna bit o’ rain to fill ’em too!

Water keeps this green and pleasant land… well, green, at least. You can’t do much about football hooligans and politicians, but that’s another story.

In fashion capital France, the hot summer colours were burnt sienna, burnt umber and burnt ochre, with the emphasis very much on burnt, and I’m talking about the crops here, not the crop tops. It was a disaster.

Give me regular grey any day, to wash those baking blue skies away! I’m telling you, as we destroy the climate, the north of France, the south of England and even the top half of the UK will become the new Côte d’Azur and Costa del Sol, god help us!