Bill's Comment Page

A wintry scene at the Nairn shore


The view looks over the cricket pitch, toward the beach and the harbour and was taken about 10 minutes ago.

We British often complain about our weather - it is never very hot or sunny for very long, and forward planning for outdoor events always has to take account of the possibility (... the likelihood) that it will rain heavily on the day.

However, the reality is that British weather is pretty equable - we don't have extremes of heat or cold for very long, we rarely have droughts of any significant duration and we don't have the extremes of weather (hurricanes, typhoons, twisters) or geological disturbances (earthquakes, volcanoes) that some parts of the world do have to cope with. Basically, we are very lucky.

And, historically, what some see as lousy weather and the limited range of foods which, traditionally, we could produce here have probably spurred our desire, quite often, to venture away from our little island, perched precariously at the western end of the Eurasian landmass and at the eastern edge of one of the larger oceans in the world.