Tomorrow it will rain

Our fascination with the weather is said to be a very British peculiarity. It would appear that if we didn’t have things meteorological to discuss, some of us would have very little to talk about! On a serious note, the bright, sunny mornings of Spring on the Isle of Mull do, indeed, help to lift our mood, while the dark, gloomy days of Winter, quite literally, dampen our spirits.


Being an island and considering our geographical position, the Isle of Mull is particularly subjected to the vagaries of the weather. Our cool, maritime climate, influenced by the warming waters of the Gulf Stream, has meant that, until recently, our Winter weather has been dominated by wind and rain (and then some!) The darkest days of the year, on the run-up to the Winter Solstice, can be the gloomiest for some, when the need for succour from a bottle or anti-depressants is greatest. However, the past couple of Winters have seen our weather reverting to type, with the return of the snow and ice of childhood memory.


Global warming has played some funny tricks with our weather here on the island. Surrounded by sea, Mull has become used to frost-free Winters, when what snow that fell was largely confined to the high tops of the central massif surrounding Ben More. The past two Winters have brought with them some real Winter weather, with bitingly cold, frosty days and nights recalling times when the snow lay deeper and the sun shone brighter: the halcyon days of a seemingly lost age.


With the snow and ice come difficulties, but, here at Mull Magic we welcome the return of Winter as we remember it from bygone days. It did seem that we may never experience snow in Scotland like we used to ever again. We now realise that Mother Nature has a wicked sense of humour and was simply storing it up, in order to drop it on us in bulk! Having said all this, the Isle of Mull has missed out on much of the snowfall that has crippled the mainland, both now on the build-up to Christmas and during the early weeks of 2010.


As we fall on our backsides (for the umpteenth time!) on the treacherous black ice that masquerades as our doorstep, we realise just how fortunate we are. We will have fun today, for tomorrow it will rain!