Please, don't bring me sunshine
Jim Murray knows one peculiar breed of Scotsman currently enjoying the wet conditions that are leaving thousands of Britons' homes under feet of water- the distiller
Was it only two and a half years ago that Scottish distillers feared for their future as Britain dried up? Was it just 1998 when the usually sodden people of Islay looked to sun-bleached skies and wondered when, if ever, they would see rain again?
My, my, how global warming can so quickly make times change. Apparently. Take now. I am sitting in the usual room I frequent when based in the Lowlands: the Lodge at beautiful Luss on the banks of Loch Lomond. A gale is producing pathetic little waves twenty to the dozen that are rippling towards their underwhelming climax just five or six feet away from my desk. And the rain is lashing ceaselessly against the window. As it was yesterday. And possibly the day before that – it’s all become a drizzley blur.
My bird book and binoculars are redundant. Save a few hardy robins, scrunched up balls of olive and tomato sitting on posts and twigs defying the elements with a nonchalant ease, there is nothing to be seen. Even the ducks have taken refuge. Just leaving the car for a few seconds to pop into the local newsagent is tantamount to pulling back the curtains, bunging the taps on full flow and heading fully clothed into a freezing shower. People are going about their business head down and miserable. Except one breed of Scotsman. The distiller. At the moment, they have smiles on their faces broader than at any time their wives (and husbands) can ever remember. Suspicions have been aroused in countless homes ... when their kids are.....
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By Jim Murray
Section : The Gospel According to Jim Murray
Page number : 8
