Stunning skies

 I never expected to love Scotland as much as I do. As an 'accidental nomad' I am usually prepared to make the best of whatever situation we find ourselves into.

Sometimes it takes a lot of work to enjoy living in a country, sometimes you fall in love after the first 5 minutes and then with every passing moment you are deeper and more hopelessly afflicted.

I will write about Edinburgh and Scotland, if only to understand my own very strong attachment, for a long time after we've had to make a home elsewhere. 

But for today, I will just say that I can't get enough of the drama of this country. The mountains (not very tall), the beaches (not very warm) the seas (not very friendly), the towns and villages (not 'picture perfect'); nothing is 'the best in the world' but the combination of it all is always dramatic, always interesting, always appealing, always hard to ignore. 

My beloved husband complains non-stop about the weather. There's nothing really wrong with the weather (he grew up on the North-East coast of England, mind you, not in some tropical paradise!) but to him, it's too grey, too cloudy, too windy, too cold, too wet. I personally LOVE the drama of it all, and the variety. 

I grew up with the extreme continental climate in Romania: bitterly cold, snowy winters (that used to last from November till March), pretty but short transitional seasons and sweltering summers. 

Here, everything is more like an eternal spring. It does get cold (but not like in Romania, Bulgaria or Germany). We do get snow (but not like in Romania or Bulgaria). It does rain a bit (but not as much as in Mauritius). The most important thing is that it changes a little every day (and sometimes several times a day!). I love the variety within this narrow spring-like (to me) margin of tolerance.

I love the crisp, bright mornings. 

I love the days the locals call 'dreich'. I've never seen the like before in my life: the rain is like a fine mist, doesn't really fall on surfaces but sort of hangs there in the air. Doesn't look serious enough to require an umbrella, but set foot in it without one, and 20 minutes later you're squelching in your footwear. 

I particularly love the haar. The cold sea fog that blankets the city. I feel we all move in a Scandinavian fairy tale. The shapes are soft, muted, the world is outlined in tones of grey, trees dripping from child-like stick silhouettes. It's quiet, cosy and oddly comforting. 

But most of all, I love the skies. So big, so deep, so all-out dramatic at all times. The almost constant wind creating dynamic skyscapes. It's like a completely new canvas out my window every other minute.

I love the skies of Scotland. It's very dark still at this time of the year (daylight is very short, but usually bright) but the sunrises more than make up for this. 

I wake up around 6, make myself an infusion (after 14 years of living with a Brit, I still don't 'get' tea) and stand in the kitchen staring out the window until the view changes to this: 

And life is SO good.