I hate the UK in autumn. Yes there's all that changing leaf colour, misty mornings, smell of woodsmoke in the air poetic nonsense but let's face it, in reality it's all about heavy grey skies, cold feet, wet clothes and dark days.
There's that thing that the Inuit people have around 50 different words for snow. The Brits have a similar thing going on with rain. Drizzle is probably one of the most famous, this being light rain.
Then there's mizzle - misty drizzle.Today I'd describe the rain as "splotting". It was random big drops which "splotted" cold and wet onto my bare head.
Brits will agree that some types of rain get you wetter than others - mizzle is famous for this.
I was not prepared this morning for the weather to be as cold and wet as it was so I stupidly wore a thin faux leather jacket over a thinnish sweatshirt. Consequently I'm cold to the bone and have just lit the first fire of the season in our open hearth.
I'm not putting the heating on yet obviously -British people wait until the very last point before putting on central heating, even if the thermometer drops into single figures. Until those clocks go back many Brits maintain it's not winter and therefore either suck it up or put another jumper on.
At this time of year in the UK there isn't even snow to look forward to yet. We spend all year talking about the weather and snow is a topic no matter what time of year it is. People post on Facebook reports from random probably unqualified "weather experts" promising/threatening extreme polar-style snowfall for the coming winter.
I've even seen these "weather warnings" in July and am slightly baffled how people can predict weather so accurately that far away. Even so, being as I'm British I get ever so slightly excited at the thought of snow days when the school closes and there's an excuse for sledging, snowball fights and endless hot chocolate with marshmallows.
There is of course the side effect of complete mayhem across the country as public transport services fail, shops close and deliveries stop - all this for less than 1cm of snow. If you are British you know that "leaves on the line" is considered a perfectly reasonable excuse to cancel your train.
So you can keep your autumn and winter weather - I'd swap it all for the type of climate where I can wear flip flops and short sleeves all year round.
There's that thing that the Inuit people have around 50 different words for snow. The Brits have a similar thing going on with rain. Drizzle is probably one of the most famous, this being light rain.
Then there's mizzle - misty drizzle.Today I'd describe the rain as "splotting". It was random big drops which "splotted" cold and wet onto my bare head.
Brits will agree that some types of rain get you wetter than others - mizzle is famous for this.
I was not prepared this morning for the weather to be as cold and wet as it was so I stupidly wore a thin faux leather jacket over a thinnish sweatshirt. Consequently I'm cold to the bone and have just lit the first fire of the season in our open hearth.
I'm not putting the heating on yet obviously -British people wait until the very last point before putting on central heating, even if the thermometer drops into single figures. Until those clocks go back many Brits maintain it's not winter and therefore either suck it up or put another jumper on.
At this time of year in the UK there isn't even snow to look forward to yet. We spend all year talking about the weather and snow is a topic no matter what time of year it is. People post on Facebook reports from random probably unqualified "weather experts" promising/threatening extreme polar-style snowfall for the coming winter.
I've even seen these "weather warnings" in July and am slightly baffled how people can predict weather so accurately that far away. Even so, being as I'm British I get ever so slightly excited at the thought of snow days when the school closes and there's an excuse for sledging, snowball fights and endless hot chocolate with marshmallows.
There is of course the side effect of complete mayhem across the country as public transport services fail, shops close and deliveries stop - all this for less than 1cm of snow. If you are British you know that "leaves on the line" is considered a perfectly reasonable excuse to cancel your train.
So you can keep your autumn and winter weather - I'd swap it all for the type of climate where I can wear flip flops and short sleeves all year round.