Spring days when you can feel the first warmth of the sun, the buzz of insects and the song of a chaffinch in the hedge and below a scattering of dark blue, blue bells.
Photo by Gethin Elias
Hot summer days with a light breeze and wisps of cloud across a perfect blue sky. Swallows hunting over swathes of colourful meadows, screaming swifts and dancing butterflies.
Early autumn as the mist clears leaving droplets of dew on every standing thing turning spider webs into pearl necklaces and as the sun breaks through each drop dazzle with the colours of rainbows. Trees become part of a fancy dress competition each individual leaf trying to outdo its neighbour’s golds, yellows, greens, reds and much more.
Winter days and a treetop frost everything is covered in a layer of prickly ice, puddles of water frozen in artistic swirl. The mountains are covered in snow and the air is so clear you feel you could cut your finger on the horizon.
These are days we dream of and we quite often forget the perfect days when the rain pours and the wind howls.
Cold grey dull spring days, late snow and freezing northerly winds as we pray for summer. May, June, July it’s still raining it never stops. Low pressure after low pressure from the west leaving the ground sodden. We haven’t had a summer and it’s already autumn, here comes another named storm and before we turn around we are back in the dark of winter!
But I can assure you it doesn't matter what the weather is doing there will be someone not happy with it somewhere. It's too cold, it’s too hot, it's too wet, it’s too dry or the wind is blowing from the north west rather than south west!
It is a common story as August has proven most people believe it's been a very wet month but the rain gauges say other wise, it’s been the driest August in 4 years here at Lake Vyrnwy.
All you need to remember is those perfect days the ones that make you feel alive. When it rains for days, remember Wales only looks this beautiful because of the weather. The land has been shaped by the power of water, and for all those days of rain it is the essence of life.
Gethin Elias, Assistant Warden
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