The one thing my country doesn’t have is …: Scotland
The answer to that is easy: decent weather.
Winters aren’t particularly cold in Scotland because of the Gulf Stream (a warm sea current which comes from the Caribbean) but they have very little sunshine and are very dark and wet. Just now it’s dark before 5pm and in the winter we often have to keep the lights on all day. In winter I have to use a light box to make up for the lack of daylight as I’m affected by SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). I believe light therapy is also common in Scandinavian countries.
Summers aren’t much better – slightly warmer and wet. It’s not unusual to have to switch on the heating on a cold summer’s day. And if you come to see our wonderful Scottish scenery you may well find it shrouded in mist. I’ve heard it said that this makes some of the mountains and glens (valleys) very atmospheric but I’d rather have some sunshine, thank you very much. This summer was exceptionally warm and sunny but even then we had some cold weather as you can see from the August entry in my blog.
That’s why everyone flies off to the Mediterranean on holiday.
But if you visit us I’m sure you’ll find the warmth of the ordinary people will make up for the weather. I hope you hit a good spell and can see some of our lovely mountains.
Winters aren’t particularly cold in Scotland because of the Gulf Stream (a warm sea current which comes from the Caribbean) but they have very little sunshine and are very dark and wet. Just now it’s dark before 5pm and in the winter we often have to keep the lights on all day. In winter I have to use a light box to make up for the lack of daylight as I’m affected by SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). I believe light therapy is also common in Scandinavian countries.
Summers aren’t much better – slightly warmer and wet. It’s not unusual to have to switch on the heating on a cold summer’s day. And if you come to see our wonderful Scottish scenery you may well find it shrouded in mist. I’ve heard it said that this makes some of the mountains and glens (valleys) very atmospheric but I’d rather have some sunshine, thank you very much. This summer was exceptionally warm and sunny but even then we had some cold weather as you can see from the August entry in my blog.
That’s why everyone flies off to the Mediterranean on holiday.
But if you visit us I’m sure you’ll find the warmth of the ordinary people will make up for the weather. I hope you hit a good spell and can see some of our lovely mountains.
5 Comments:
So... I guess Scotland is NOT a place for us Canadians to take off to in the winter --- I just finished my post and saw you posted practically simulataneously --- we are both looking for winter warmth!
Winter is definitely NOT the time to come. Even the skiing isn't very great thanks to a shortage of snow. Spring is nice - not too wet.
My best memories of Scottish holidays are: hiring a rowing boat in the rain on Loch Awe; long drives looking for a sunset -- we would always catch tantalising glimpses of salmon red sky between the clouds; and in between the downpours, diving off sunwarm black rocks into a sea loch that was a very pleasant temperature for swimming.
I have been twice in Scotland in summer, and well it is definitely cold, windy and rainy, but still, that's part of the magic of Scotland! and I actually didnt have much rain when I was there...
Uh, I´ll think twice before complaining about the high temperatures here!
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