Winter returned to Moville yesterday evening with first a shower of hailstones and then a fall of snow. There was a lot less snow than predicted though and the schoolchildren won’t get their wish of a ‘snow day’ off school. There had been predictions of 10cm of snow falling. Although there is snow and hailstones on the ground this morning it is not a full covering. It’s not even a full covering in the hills across the water.
Daffodils
It’s pretty cold though. Anyone hoping to save on their heating bills after the mild, springy spell of weather recently will have to think again and shell out. The daffodils will have got a bit of a shock to their system just when they were starting to come through and give a real spring-like feel to the area.
The buds are on the bushes and trees too. Let’s hope that this won’t set them back. Remember the chill wind that came in a couple of years ago in spring and killed off a lot of the vegetation facing the Derry side? Indeed with all of the leaves on the ground it seemed like autumn.
Spring v Winter
It usually happens at this time of the year that there are the competing forces of winter and spring with some spring-like weather giving way to more wintry conditions every so often. However, most of the worst is behind us and most of the best is in front of us as spring will gradually assert itself and win the battle over winter.
Then we have the summer. Is this the barbecue summer that we have long been waiting for? I’m told that 1995 was the last time that we had a great summer here in the months of July and August. No one under twenty will remember it. In these austere times, with unemployment so high and businesses that have been here for generations closing almost every month, it would be great to have a nice, warm summer in this the Year of The Gathering.
It would be great to see the town jam-packed with visitors enjoying day after day of warm weather and the tills of local businesses jingling with cash – enough to keep them through what is becoming a longer and longer off-season. Maybe this is the year.
Fingers crossed!