weather – BRUCE AND HOLLY

English countryside village with winding dirt road, stone cottages, sheep on hills, and river — A peaceful English countryside village nestled among rolling green hills and wildflowers

I don’t get sunburned anymore. Years back, my skin would have turned red and I would feel as if I had been chucked into a sack of stinging nettles. And just by sitting outside in the sun for a couple of hours. Then after a few days my skin will begin to itch and flake. Not anymore, I have adjusted to the UK’s sunnier climate. And I certainly don’t miss the freezing cold winters of yesteryear. And I can’t remember the last time I put on sun cream. How can it be good to smother ourselves in chemicals? But don’t get me wrong.

I am sensible in what I wear. So it is only my face and arms which are exposed. And I have also taken to wearing a baseball cap. Not a silly one. And I don’t pull it down over my nose like Donald Trump. Instead it is perched on the back of my head and maybe cocked slightly to an angle. How cool is that?

If I want a good night’s sleep, I will put a large fan at the end of my bed. Even the sound of it is relaxing. And it uses only a tenth of the energy of a portable air conditioning system. So I’m also saving the planet.

Black rainwater collection barrel connected to house gutter system with water flowing into it — A rainwater collection barrel gathers water from the roof during rainfall

I also believe in self-sufficiency. Which is why I have installed a rainwater collection system. Not like the one in the picture. Mine is freestanding. Just a green plastic tank with a few holes punched in the top.I bought it a couple of months back and we still haven’t had a drop of rain.

I never understand why today it is fashionable to see hot sunny weather as a problem instead of something to be celebrated. As a child going up in the UK, we never had weather like this. Yes, we might get a few sunny days. Rarely above 75°. But mostly, English weather was dreary dreary dreary. Rarely a winter went by with at least one heavy snowfall during January or February, lasting several weeks. Another winter feature was the fog, which made driving conditions difficult. A new phrase was coined, ‘motorway madness’ to describe the vehicle pile ups which occurred when drivers would insist on driving at speed through heavy fog, following the tail-lights of the vehicle in front. In those days, if you wanted hot sunshine, you had to pay for it by buying a package holiday to Spain.

I remember driving through London at the end of 1978 after heavy snowfall and in freezing temperatures.

Because it happened in the days between Christmas and New Year, no-one was prepared to get out of bed to grit the roads. That was a journey I’d never want to repeat. We passed so many smashed up cars.

Things had already begun to change with the long hot Indian summer of 1976 when we had an invasion of giant red ladybirds which would bite you. Anyone remember that? Then in September 2003, the Mercury hit 100° for the first time in living memory in the UK. Wouldn’t someone living in the mini ice age of 17th century Britain have envied that?

Of course a warmer climate in the UK means that adjustments have to be made. I think we are still too much of an ‘ indoor society’, when we should be getting out and enjoying the sunshine, like they do in other parts of the world. It’s why I like to take my computer outside and do my work instead of sitting in a stuffy box room. I’ve never believed in air conditioning. It has never made sense to me for someone to spend money burning energy to keep us in a freezer. How is that good for the planet? If I need to be inside, I’d much rather have a big wooden ceiling fan chug chug chugging overhead

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Tag: weather

Adjusting to the Sunny UK: A Personal Journey

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