Yes he has a lot to answer for this year hasn't he? Two-faced as he is he has sent storms, floods, a volcanic eruption in Iceland; then he has taunted us this week with the warmest day ever recorded:19.6C in a most beautiful little village in Wester Ross in Scotland (hotter than Rome or Cote d'Azur!). As the two-faced one disappears for another year he has one last taunt - for us here in the Yorkshire Dales - a dark, dismal, pouring-wet day. It is 11.20am here - I have completed The Times Mind Games (well, the ones I do every weekday), read my e mails and answered the one or two that needed an answer, cleared out my Spam and Trash files and I am sitting at my Laptop and he is still beating on my window. Yesterday for the first time in weeks my patio was completely dry.
My garden is steep and is landscaped with a couple of retaining walls to hold back the rockery. Where the bottom wall meets the patio there is a row of small drain holes all the way along to allow the water to drain out - and drain out it does. Until yesterday. Suddenly all the surplus water had drained away. Back to January 'normal' now as Janus empties gallons of the stuff out of great black storm clouds. I, like most people in this country at least, will be glad to wave goodbye to Janus - the two faced one - the day after tomorrow. And then folk will speculate on what February will bring (I don't think he is named after a god). One thing is certain - the old adage 'January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow' does hold any longer does it?
I don't want to go on about 'the good old days' but I do know that when I was a child the sledge was always at the front of the shed, given a cursory wash and brush up and ready to go. I would hazard a guess that there are very few sheds on this estate that even hold a sledge.
So, brace yourselves for February in the sure and certain knowledge that anything might happen where the weather is concerned - hottest/coldest recorded day - one year during the six years I have lived here - we had snow and it lasted a fortnight on the ground; another year we had absolutely no rain at all in what used to be called 'February fill-dyke' in Lincolnshire when I was a child.
I wonder what would happen if we did away with months and consigned their names to the history books; decided to just have one big year with no such things as seasons (they no long hold good do they?). That would mean we are on day 29 this year.
By my calculations (maths of any kind not my strong point) that would make the new tax year begin on day 97 and my 92nd birthday (if I am still here) will be on Day 305. Fancy the idea?
Just a thought but I bet it would smarten up our arithmetic by the end of the year.
Have a good day/