Bad Weather

It was about seven years ago that we first began house hunting in Anglesey. We had been looking at properties all day and had just viewed the penultimate property. There I was, standing on Mynydd Bodafon, looking out across to the north coast when the rain came. It was not very heavy but the wind whipped it against me. I felt chilled to the bone. I asked the question, "Why do I want to come and live here?"

Shortly afterwards I was standing right on the cliff edge at Church Bay, wasting a little time so we arrived at our next appointment on time. I was wearing a winter coat but I felt very cold indeed - as if I were not wearing a coat. It put me off in my quest to live in Anglesey. However, as my wife pointed out, in this sort of weather I would be indoors normally so the problem was solved.

After we moved here the first winter included a medium snowfall as photos I took at the time show. At no time were the roads impassable. We drove over to Llangefni to change library books. we arrived to find a closed library. Two days later we returned and found the library still closed. When we tried a third time later in the week we asked why the place had been closed. the answer was that the staff couldn't get in because of the snow. Now the snow we experienced had fallen only to the north west of Llangefni and the the other half was free of snow. The roads in the snowy zone had remained usable throughout. So there was no excuse!

Every time there is significant rain the markets are not held. This meant that after a night of heavy rain and strong winds (but not gales) the Llangefni market did not happen. The car parks were almost deserted. Anglesey was hibernating today. After our library visit we drove over to Tesco in Bangor where business was as usual.

My conclusion is that the islanders are soft about weather. With the windy reputation of Anglesey one would expect the islanders to be a hardy breed but not so. It is amazing to me that the island virtually closes down when the weather is bad. In the words of Craig Revell Horwood - "A- ma-zing!"