I really think the reason they move people to the UK over the summer is because the weather is so nice. We had our fair share of sunny days and above average temperatures well into October. But sometime between the beginning and end of the autumn half term (break), things went to hell in a handbasket.
It is pitch black dark out there save for the oncoming headlights. It is so bad that the dog needs a flashlight to go out in the evening because without it he misses the steps leading to the grass. Add to that the winding country roads and those single track roads and it is pretty terrifying. Grateful that I learned how to drive here before it got bad.
Some things are expected like cold, darkness, rain and sitting in front of your happy lamp. Interesting side note: if you run a search for happy lamps on Amazon.com, you get these results. But run the same search on Amazon.co.uk and you get these. Americans clearly have a more positive spin on naming remedies for Seasonal Affective Disorder.
But, I digress. Fall is the start of the real rainy season. You know, the one that makes the British Isles greener than the grass stains on a school uniform come spring. And rain brings mud which brings me to today's topic: outdoor learning.
In the UK, part of the curriculum includes something called outdoor learning. This is different from the outdoor classroom concept which our school in Vienna developed. In fact, it is more like outdoor survival skills. In the past couple of weeks, the kids have been busy learning all kinds of things like how to rock climb (because England has cliffs), how to kayak and build a raft (because it rains and flooding happens) and how to build fires (because it gets really cold out there).
There is no way that any of this would fly in the the overly safety conscious U.S., but I am grateful that should we become lost in a wilderness some day my kids will know what to do.
But first, between a mix of horseshit from the horse stable and mud from everywhere, I have more laundry to do, boots to spray clean. Just a typical day in cold, rainy, and foggy England.
