Home from Home | Winter in Britain is cold and dark – and while it can be beautiful, I can’t wait for spring to arrive to chase the gloom away
- On first arrival from Hong Kong, the cold and dark of the British winter was a novelty – frosted fields, snowy scenes and cosy evenings in front of a log fire
- This year, the novelty has worn off with storms as strong as some Hong Kong typhoons. With the days growing ever shorter, I am counting down to spring already
The onset of winter, when darkness descends, the temperature plummets and the rain is incessant, was always going to be one of the more challenging aspects of returning to Britain after many years in Hong Kong.
Last winter, my first back in the country, had some novelty value. The frost on the fields was beautiful. The snow, in December, created magical Christmas-card scenes. And cosy evenings in front of a log fire appealed.
Now I will find out how quickly that novelty wears off. The rain in recent weeks has been relentless, with Britain being battered by storms.
Roofs were ripped off houses in some parts of the country and there was widespread flooding. In Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, residents felt they had been struck by a tornado. Hailstones, meanwhile, were said to have been as big as golf balls.