It's raining! Why am I surprised? They told us that there would be rain - lots of it. This is Wales! We are in prime position for all those warm, wet westerlies which traverse the Atlantic and land up right here on the Welsh coast. Living a few miles inland it would be even worse, as those moisture-laden winds rise to ascend our Welsh mountains and drop their load on the hills. So not as bad as it could be! But bad enough.
I knew in my head it would rain a lot. I'm not stupid. It wasn't that I didn't believe them. After all, I've never lived in Wales before - how would I know? It's just that I am coming to the conclusion that I don't have a very good knack for visualisation. The summer was gorgeous when it finally arrived (better late than never) - hot and sunny day after day. But if it isn't in front of my eyes I can't see it. In summer I can never imagine, however often it happens, that in winter I will ever feel cold enough to wear my fur coat or cumbersome boots. In winter the reverse happens and I look in horror at all those strappy tops, thin, sleeveless dresses and sandals and think I must have been crazy to buy them. The climate has changed for sure and it will never ever again be warm enough to wear them. Wrong!
We drove to Aberystwyth the other day to look for walking boots. Knowing (in our heads at least) that the weather here is not that great in winter (and maybe at other times too?), we determined to be well prepared for outdoor pursuits and get ourselves geared up with sturdy boots, waterproof trousers, etc. After all, we love the outdoors and don't want to get stuck indoors all winter simply because we don't have the right equipment to stride out along muddy footpaths. We trudged round the shops. The financial aspect was off-putting. Getting prepared is prohibitively expensive. Questioning the staff of various outdoor shops proved even more off-putting. When did 'waterproof' really mean waterproof? For how long would it be waterproof? Under what conditions would this magic word apply? We slunk out of a number of shops, discouraged. For this reason and for the simple fact that neither of us have first hand experience of muddy footpaths in Wales we failed to buy anything. Surely the tracks we had walked along all summer would be OK really? Surely the heavy duty boots we saw other walkers equipped with were not strictly necessary - just a fad probably. Anyway, after paying all that money for brand new boots how could you bear to get them dirty? (We both admitted after the event to having had that thought!) We were only talking about footpaths. We weren't intending any mountain climbing, wading through streams or slithering down scree slopes. No, just a few simple strolls in the beautiful countryside.
Yesterday the rain stopped. We had other plans for the day but abandoned them immediately and grabbed the chance. We put on our trainers and went for a walk. November. Autumn leaves. Glorious colourful landscapes and leafy lanes. And mud. Paths that were level, gritty and well made up in summer turned out to be covered in layers of leaf mould, twigs brought down by the recent gales, puddles across the width of the paths and a layer of rich, thick mud! Now why didn't we visualise that beforehand? Maybe there is a part of my brain missing. Maybe my brain only lives in the present moment and cannot adapt itself to thoughts of the future. Maybe the meditation experts would applaud me - after all, these days, living in the moment is much advocated and I seem to be well adapted to the task. However, much as this technique for living is a godsend for relaxing the mind and calming the most frenetic temperament in weekly pilates classes, it doesn't seem to equip us well for the cut and thrust of everyday life. Taking the odd peek at the future and what it is likely to hold and imagining ourselves into the situation so that we can make plans and avoid disasters seems to be a good idea now and then.
Never mind, the round trip to Aberystwyth is a mere 80 miles from our village. Perhaps we should make another trip now we are more clued up to the realities round here! After all, in Wales it can be very wet...
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