Thursday 30 March 2023
On Monday, it was sunny and beautiful all day, clear into the evening for the stars to shine. Since then, it has barely stopped raining, mainly billowy clouds of misty rain with the occasional straightforward downpour. I went out to bring in the wildlife camera SD cards but couldn’t face going back out in it so didn’t return them to the cameras, meaning we probably missed a parade of animals, though rain like we’ve been having is good at obscuring the lens. It may be a struggle to make myself go out to return them today.
I came across an article written by a Canadian who had lived in Edinburgh for two years. The theme of her piece was ten things she wished she’d known and been prepared for before she moved to Edinburgh. I suppose unsurprisingly, one factor was the rain. Another was that, as she put it, there is no summer. Saying all this, she made it clear, and it was indeed apparent, that she absolutely loved living in Edinburgh. Anyway, rain and the absence of summer. Chris and I knew it rained a lot in Scotland, we’d even talked about that when trying to figure out where in the UK we’d like to live. We knew. We’d been to Scotland before, it had rained, everyone jokes about holidays in Scotland, rain, rain, rain, anything that should be green is even more green up here than the rest of the country, rain, rain, rain. We knew. Scotland, rain. Yet somehow, I don’t think we quite understood what rain most days is actually like.
The wetness and the mud is annoying but at least you know where you stand. You wear wellies or waterproof walking boots because anything else would be inadequate. For this I have been prepared. Likewise, I only brought up wintery, waterproof coats and jackets. Wise. And I now have my amazing vintage oilskin which has yet to let even a droplet of rain pass through its water and windproof material. All good. We have mats and cardboard at both doors to keep the mud out of the living space. We have waterproof gloves and I have a pair of amazing Sealskinz gloves (if you have never encountered Sealskinz and their waterproof gloves, socks, hats, have a look, they’re amazing). We are covered.
But what I, and I think I can speak for Chris too, had not really been able to foresee is that it seems to rain for days and days and days, then a day or more of full or partial sun, then days and days of rain. Apparently, in this area it rains almost half the year. Google has revealed that there is actually a rainy season (though possibly not the most reliable source of information) here, which is October (the wettest month), November and December. April, apparently, is the driest month. When we arrived in mid-November, it was probably the muddiest it’s been since we lived here, which kind of aligns with October being the wettest month.
Yesterday, the mossy moor-like land at the top of our ‘garden’ was possibly the wettest and squishiest I’ve ever experienced it. Every step revealed a pool of water around my wellies. Anything muddy was almost a mud slide.
The days of grey and rain are definitely part of the challenge of moving from London in the south to a rural area in Scotland. We have both realised that autumn might be difficult, going into the months of rain and cold and shorter daylight hours. However, it rains in the rest of the UK too, though less, and even in the rain it’s still good to be here. When the sun shines, it’s worth spending as much of the day outdoors as possible. Would it have made a difference had we lived here before and really known what it’s like with rain, at times rain most days? No. If the weather here were glorious, so many more people would live here and it wouldn’t be green.
Looking out now, it might actually have stopped raining, but it’s grey (no, it’s a fine misty rain) and calm and looks lovely. But a bit of sun, even for an hour or so, would really be appreciated …
