Weather forecast was dry and sunny

Why didn’t the rain read today’s forecast and fall where it’s supposed to? Brought back to my mind the long ago seasons when I was older than I am today, come with me to a time some 50 years ago….

The last few weeks of summer term were often warm and sunny (this would be June) occasional showers but nothing to cause alarm. Summer holidays were always spent outdoors, after the first week we’d travel South to Newcastle, kids would still be at school the first week down so no cousins to play with my siblings and I would play in either my aunt’s garden or my nana’s. Monday was always baking day, bread and cakes, I used to pinch some of the hot bread, smother it in butter (which melted into the hot bread) and wolf it down before it turned cold. The ease of being young, everything was an adventure. When I went to the cinema with my cousins and siblings we’d come out and be whatever we’d seen on screen.

Even though we’d play out in July and August till we returned to school the weather wasn’t always kind. We didn’t get anything like the amount of rain seen today, showers were sometimes heavy but rain never fell for more than 4 hours back then. There was no danger of flooding apart from spring tides when the snow melted. It was only a few feet thick on the hills, elsewhere there was enough to make everything appear white but not enough to worry about. Being a good catholic family we went to mass every Sunday, ate fish on Friday and went to confession every other week, even if we had to make things up.

I no longer go to church, when I hit puberty I saw what was really going on and it was quite a revelation. Men would be all spiritual for an hour then once out of church would be swearing drinking and talking to wife or mistress on the way home. Hypocrites all. I must’ve had one of the few pious priests judging by the revelations as none of us altar boys were defiled, nor were any of the choir. I had a lot of friends in those days and not all were Catholics! Life was simple, there was generally a cold dry spell from the middle of November and if there hadn’t been any snow before we went to midnight mass on Xmas eve it had always snowed while we were there. Every Xmas was white.

Now we can have snow anytime from October to January and not the light sprinkles we used to have but drifts up to 10 feet tall we can tunnel through. When that melts there’s a risk of flooding, we get torrential rains for days at a time which can destroy homes by removing the foundations.

Is global warming to blame, who really knows the answer to that? Our moon is moving further away every year so could that be the cause. Personally, I think if we do find out the reasoning behind this shift in the weather patterns it will bring us one step closer to understanding why our planet, along with everything on or in her, keeps evolving and may bring us closer in the end, I can dream and hope that one day all people will live in peace and harmony and the lion will be able to lie down with the lamb without trying too kill it to survive.