The Final Years

The long dark night of winter presses hard,

cold hard days give way to colder nights

that freeze the limbs and stiffen the bones

in this unkind time of the northern year.

Lord, this chill is unlike any that went before,

and now at my age it is one that unsettles me;

I have seen good times aplenty in my halcyon days,

and I know this coming age will not spare us.

Senhor, tem misericordia de nós...

This winter has outdone its rival seasons,

taken Nature hostage, given it tooth and claw;

the cold and wind to prime and pierce us,

the sleet and ice and snow to unmake us.

Lord, are these the wilderness years foretold,

the barren time of otherworld temptation?

is this the moment when we must be parted,

when our lean souls are driven out from us?

Senhor, tem piedade de nós...

I feel the icy sting of a cold wind, oh Lord

as it sweeps across these stony desolate places,

in these stormy times of unfolding prophecies.

I fear the finality of what must come to pass,

of the union of life and death in this end of days.

Senhor, mal aguento este frio...

Snow!

Part One:

Well here it is again... snow! This year's winter is set to look more like the sort of winters we used to get when I was a child where snow was pretty well on the menu every year around this time. As I write, late at night, it is snowing fairly hard and the landscape is gradually turning white. And the short-term forecast is that snow will continue to fall throughout the night and perhaps into tomorrow. So we shall see what we shall see. But snow or no snow, it's damn cold!

Part Two:

It's all over. At least as far as the next few days are concerned. It didn't snow in this part of the country today and now it's all clearing, moving northwards to hit those tough northerners.. But I dare say if we don't get any more snow this year the likelihood is that we will get some early next year. Pity though that it never coincides with Christmas or at least Christmas Day anymore.

Part Three:

Snow or no snow, it's coooold... brrrrrrrrrr! And once snow has settled in any quantity, ice will begin to form in the days that follow and that's even more treacherous than snow. Oh well, happy days!

Hey, this is looking very civilised... a handful of cars moving along in a very orderly fashion, considerately spaced out, all very gentlemanly! Not the usual bumper-to-bumper crawl of hundreds of cars that we are used to seeing. On the other hand they are probably in some god-forsaken out-of-the way part of the country where five cars in a row are already seen as traffic congestion!

Autumn

"SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;"

These are the opening lines of John Keats's famous poem 'To Autumn', in praise of the colours, smells and sights of this crossover season of the year. What he doesn't mention, of course, are the cold, wind, rain and often frost that often accompany this season! For Keats Autumn is a rich tapestry that regales the senses and heightens the emotions.

"As Summer into Autumn slips

And yet we sooner say

"The Summer" than "the Autumn," lest

We turn the sun away,"

The first verse of Emily Dickinson's musing on Autumn neatly captures the feeling that we have a tendency to lengthen Summer and keep Autumn at bay for as long as we can, not so much because of Autumn itself but rather of what it brings in its wake. And so last few days of Summer spill over into the first few days of Autumn. But as the leaves begin to fall from the trees and the winds begin to blow, we grudgingly accept the coming of Autumn and comfort ourselves with the thought that there may well be fine days still to come before the onset of Winter.

“Laden Autumn here I stand Worn of heart, and weak of hand: Nought but rest seems good to me, Speak the word that sets me free.”

So speaks William Morris of Autumn in the Autumn of his own life. And of course this season of the year has often be identified with the penultimate phase of human life, in the antechamber, so to speak, of the closing years of man's allotted term. Autumn is laden with ripened fruit, but it is also the season of decomposition. It puts the icing on Summer but it also opens the door to Winter. Autumn celebrates the fruits of Summer, but it also paves the way for the desolation of Winter. In short, it looks both ways, it is Janus, the God that faces both forward and backward.

The Great British Summer

WELL, folks, here we are again, it's the height of summer and, surprise surprise, the weather here in Britain is SHIT... yet again. Overcast skies, rain, wind, even cold at times. Now and again the sun timidly manages to peek through a break in the cloud cover and send its heart-warming rays and heat down to us just to remind us that, yes, it is actually summer even though it's more like winter! But it's not long before the clouds gang up on it again and literally close ranks against it, forcing it to retreat.

BUT that's British summers for you. It ever was so and i suppose it ever will be. However, we now have a new factor to contend with. Global warming! And it seems that the more global warming we have, the colder it gets here in Blighty. God help us if global warming continues unchecked, because it seems we're set to cool down and eventually freeze up the hotter the world gets! Makes a lot of sense that, doesn't it?

NOW imagine if instead of global warming we had global cooling. On the analogy of global warming causing a countrywide cooling here, the corollary would be that global cooling would trigger a heatwave! Far-fetched? Well, maybe, and maybe not. But one thing's for sure... the worse that global warming gets, the worse our weather gets and specifically the cooler it gets, thus producing, as i have already said, SHIT summers.

THE bottom line is that the british weather never has made any sense and now it is making even less sense than it's made in the last few million years. For those who yearn for the sun, they must do as many thousands of other Brits have done before them... high-tail it to Southern Europe and join all the other ex-pats who already live there and are enjoying life in the sun. Cos, global warming or not, the weather isn't going to get any better here and, by the looks of it, is set to get a lot worse... ohhhh, Perfidious Albion!