Cold?

This morning the 16th Nov 2010 really hit home how things have changed in my lifetime, this mainly to do with the weather and how we adapt to it. I was born in 1962 which according to records was the coldest winter since 1740 up until that point. With that as my introduction to the winters in Britain you might think that I have a pre disposition to expecting cold snaps that dont really infringe on my day to day life. This was rudely put to test this morning when I opened the front door, coming from a reasonably warm flat to the bitter cold brought back so many memories of childhood.

Growing up in the south of Scotland and later going to school in Perthshire the extremes of winter weather have had a rather strong impact on my life.

The house I grew up in was a typical south Scottish farm house on the top of what is best discribed a s a hillock, thankfully surrounded by a lot of trees, otherwise would have been laid bare to all sorts of exposure to winds and snows coming down from the hills surrounding it. My parents never known for spending money wisely, did not see the need for central heating and relied on the aga and a collection of night storage heaters to keep the place warm along with open fires that threw out such a heat that doors and occasionally windows had to be opened to disperse the intense heat. This combination kept the place as warm as necessary during the day, it was only after the fire guard had been placed in front of the fire at the end of the night that things became much more Dickensian.

Having gone to bed with hot water bottles to take the chill off the sheets and to give a semblance of heat, that unfortunately would not last until the morning, it must have been in the early hours of the day that it was just you and a few blankets that were against the vagaries of the winter. upon waking you knew how cold it was when you breathed and the plume of smoke that came out of your mouth indicated that it might be a good idea to get dressed whilst still in the bed, to this end, the night before you had laid out at the bottom of the bed all the clothes you would need in the morning. Pulling the curtains back you saw that Jack Frost had paid a visit with the intricate frost patterns around the panes of glass making up the windows, which were usually attacked with a finger nail to write your name in it just to see how thick the ice really was, so before you ventured outside you knew exactly how cold it was outside.

I cant say iI miss those days too much but at least you knew from the word go what the weather would be like for the rest of the day, unlike now when with central heating, you wake up pad around the flat and then get ready to go, inner door open, slightly colder than the flat and then hey presto the full blast winter hits you in the face and forces you back in to add extra items of clothing and trying to find the gloves you havent warn since last winter and hopeing you finf them as a pair and not just one of them and then back out fully kitted out to get you through the day.

At least tomorrow I will know to venture out fully loaded......................