Old War Wounds

Well I've managed to swing a sneaky wee long weekend at the caravan this weekend. It's only an extra day off but it's a chance to head off to the caravan and get another injection of sea and sand and sky.

I mention Sky because where we are was officially designated as one of Europe's best 'Dark Areas' last year. What is a dark area I hear you say? It's a place that has so little light pollution at night that it offers a fantastic opportunity for people to view the night sky. I live in a city so the sky is usually just a glow created by traffic lights with the occasional twinkling aeroplane or police helicopter.

I've always loved to go out in the dark and look up, as a wee boy I even started trying to identify some of the constellations, (I gave up when I realised that astrologers were just talking crap when they said it looked like a crab or a goat or scales, or twins. I Would have loved to see their dot-to-dot books at school. (and they think my generation discovered drugs) I can honestly say that in my whole life I've never seen a sky as crowded as the sky gets down there. I almost wish I had went last week because there was supposed to be a big meteor shower. One time we even saw the Northern lights (that's impressive in the south of Scotland, they must have taken the wrong turn on their way up to Aberdeen).

The stars may not be an issue however because the weather is supposed to be predictably Scottish. Anyone who has ever heard of Scotland will know what that means. Imagine that the constant is grey and persistently wet with occasional extremes that could include, sunshine, Gail force winds, lashing rain, hail, sleet and snow and you've got the average Scottish weather forecast for June. Take the sunshine out of the mix and you've got pretty much every other month of the year. Imagine grey clouds sitting at rooftop level for eleven months of the year.

In some countries it stays dark for three or four months without a proper sunrise during the winter. In Scotland the sun does rise, you just have to take someone Else's word for it because we don't see it. So stars may not be an issue. Officially the weather is to be as shown but we're way to unpredictable to trust weather reports.

One last thing on the weather before I go. Seven years ago I almost crippled myself climbing over a gate and broke my knee very badly (not that I can think of a good way to do it). Anyhow it took a while and technically I still have a broken leg but you would never know. Except!!!! twice a year when it gets uncomfortable. It doesn't get sore just a bit stiff and almost bruised feeling. I hate to say it but, when that happens, it heralds a change in the season. Yep it never fails. I'm not sure if there is a scientific reason but it works. It doesn't tell me that it will be a bad winter or a good summer. Just that the season has changed.

Skeptics will point out that there are other signs of the season changing. The calender is a good one for a start and then if that fails there's always leaves falling off trees, berries etc. I know I know but, when the knee goes it means that there has actually been a fundamental change. You may still get the occasional lovely warm day but, the morning will be colder (into single figures) and the evening will be colder. There will be a slight tangible sharpness to the air. Yep the nights haven't really started to draw in yet but I can feel Autumn. Problem is that it's way early. This shouldn't happen till mid October.

Could the knee be wrong......

Stay hooked to find out

See you on Monday

T