November Rain
The ground can't take any more.
Splashing through a field with the dog, glad of wellies. Earthworms drowning, writhing out the ground. Thousands of them.
It's been raining for weeks.
The water flowing on any slope, the local burn with its banks burst, water swirling around the base of lampposts on the path, now underwater.
My jacket hasn't dried out properly for days and it's started to smell.
The dog looks like she's had enough of this walk. Happy to go back now? she seems to be saying.
I throw her a ball and the splashes it makes remind me of playing rugby as a teenager. Rolling round in the mud and freezing water in just a thin jersey. Character building.
But it's not the rain that gets to you. It's the darkness. When the streetlights go off and it suddenly gets noticeably darker, because sunrise doesn't mean much on days when the cloud is so dark and dense. And then at half past three the curtains are drawn again.
I'm reminded of comments on an emigrants forum years ago. An American woman who had moved to the West of Scotland was warning her compatriots off.
'I'm fine with rain,' one replied, 'Scotland will be OK.'
I could picture the original poster's haunted look as she replied back.
'You don't understand. It's not the rain. It's the DARKNESS.'
The poor woman was not coping too well.
Och well, don't worry. Just another three months of this to go.
Comments
It's even worse in the Scottish West Coast Highlands and Islands which make Glasgow look like a dry warm desert by comparison. In the winter months living in a city, I sometimes walk at night as the colours of the street lights help to make it less drab and grey and they look great after rain. Shiny and far brighter, reflecting off the wet streets and pavements.
The summer just gone was good though two months of dry warm weather, comfortable enough to sit indoors in T shirt and shorts without any heating even at night yet not too hot. I can handle that alright and unusual for Scotland while London and the south reached 40 degrees we were just cosy at 25 to 29ish.