Scotland- Wild & Mild

It’s raining here today but after a few days of bright skies l do not mind so much. l think to myself, how mild this past year has been overall. Up in the back garden the Mallow is still in flower and some Daffodils are already out. In general, January and February are normally the coldest months for Scotland so this is quite unusual.

Given our latitude it really beggars belief that our climate IS so mild. Have a look at the map- see how far North we are!

I've been thinking a lot lately about blogging friends around the world, e.g. Kerri in Upstate NY with so much snow and Alice and others, including my sister 'Down Under' , so hot and in need of rain.

To a large extent, the winter temperature in Scotland/British Isles is influenced by the surface temperature of the surrounding sea. We owe much to the ‘Gulf Stream’ or ‘Mid Atlantic Drift' and its warming effects for this latitude. There’s even a difference it temperature between the West and East Scotland given that the Gulf Stream flows up the Western side. The Isle of Jura is a good example of the 'micro-climate' you can get in this area. The sea is temperate and the climate mild, allowing tropical plants such as palm trees to flourish.

The Gulf Stream is one of the strongest ocean currents in the world. It moves warm water from the Gulf of Mexico north into the Atlantic and eventually flows up to us here. Anyone want to send a message in a bottle? :)

However it must also be noted that with the high latitude of Scotland comes short winter days and long summer ones with extended twilight. The need for heavy curtains is great or else we would never get the bairns to sleep. “Mummy, why do l need to go to bed, it’s still light outside?” On the longest day there is no complete darkness up north at all.

For me a good indication that spring is on the way is the fact that the days start to ‘open up’ again. When this happens l tend to busy myself in the garden. Unfortunately my local garden nursery does not open until March 1st so l have been doing other things like adding manure to the flower beds (fun) and aerating the lawn.

“Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot, We'll weather the weather, Whatever the whether, Whether we like it or not”