grumpyf1

Big, isn't it..? A long, long, time ago, I was on holiday on a Greek island, whose name eludes me – it probably had a “thos” at the end.  Out for an al fresco meal one night, the power went off, plunging all of the local area into darkness. As we were close to the sea, there was an total absence of man-made light. It was like someone had flicked the switch on a celestial light show. In an instant I saw more stars in the sky than I ever had before, eyeballed the Milky Way in all it’s glory for the very first time and experienced a quite stunning, humbling, moment - utterly beautiful. True, several large glasses of cheap local retsina may have helped enhance it, but it’s stayed long in my memory... a bit like the aftertaste of the bargain booze. Friends Of The Lake District want a piece of that sweet action (darkness, not budget plonk) and are hoping to achieve ‘Dark Sky Reserve’ status in three years. The plan is to limit artificial light pollution, which will make the a...

Is it still light out?  Well, enjoy it while you can because at the weekend gloom time arrives, and there’s nothing we can do about it until Spring. If you were looking for a nice, cheery, introduction, then you’re in to the wrong place. For the next four months or so, I’m declaring this column a sanctuary for those affected by WIMPEY (Winter Irritates Me Practically Every Year) Syndrome. For fellow sufferers, the impending clocks-going-backness that occurs this weekend is a depressing alarm call, ringing in the debilitating fact that it’ll be dark at 5pm until March, Halloween is lurking ominously round the corner in a cheap mask from Tesco, and it’s mere days away from the Daily Mail carrying a “Weather Bomb/Worst Winter For a Generation” headline to make us feel even more forlorn. Thanks to the brilliant decision to shove the clocks back by an hour, those afflicted by the unfortunate problem of a 9-5 job will no longer get to see the beautiful autumn colours. No, thank...