Glorious Cumbrian rain

If my big trip around Asia and Oz taught me something is that for much of the time a lot of the world seems to be a pretty dry place. I encountered precipitation so seldom in fact that when I did it was something of a novelty; a tropical downpour in Bangkok flooding the streets within minutes or an infrequent shower during Japan's so called wet season. No doubt most places do get their fair share of rainfall at some point, but having been back in Cumbria for a few days and subject once more to the westerly prevailing winds I can safely say that I've more or less encountered more rainfall in the past few days than in the previous seven months abroad. Perhaps we don't win in volume here, as those tropical showers are nothing short of torrential, but yesterday it began raining in the afternoon and only eased and gave way to sunshine this morning. When it comes to persistent rainfall the British Isles, or at least their Western coasts have it made.

Thing is, I love it. It may be damp, cold and seemingly miserable especially at this time of year but it feels like home. Damn it, it is home, and convivial or not for outdoor pursuits it's the climate I've grown up with and rather oddly become attached to. It sounds odd to say I'm attached to lakeland relief rainfall but that's just the fact of the matter. Now I don't mind living somewhere dry; I lived on London for two years and it hardly ever seems to rain down there; yet familiarity is driven by more than just sights and people, it's the whole caboodle of which getting rained on on an all too regular basis is part and parcel thereof.

Yet now the sun is shining. The field across the way is slightly waterlogged and the sleep are all sitting down looking contented in whatever warmth the December sun is able to offer them. The northern English green-ness is positively glowing. I'll pop into town shortly and no doubt there'll be that unmistakable smell of fresh rain, the damp ground offering a cacophony of hitherto hidden scents and smells. And to think I had some reservations about returning to the UK in mid-winter. How quickly dispelled they are. Certainly it's not a climate conducive to the sort of walking I was until recently doing in Australia, but then the same could be said of the weather in the rapidly approaching Aussie summer and give me cool weather over an excess of heat any day.

It's time to go and support my local Post Office while I still can.