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Further North - long summer days and lovely countryside

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2009-09-19 19:41:51 - Graham Ellis

I live further north than the city of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan at 50°37' [Latitude]. And much further north than Ottawa, where I was cautioned against walking 400 yards to a restaurant in deep winter because of the bitter cold. Ottawa is at 45°24'. Where I live is 51°32' North.

Living so far north, the days in winter are short, and in summer are long - the seasons here are much more extreme that they are in Washington DC, or Florida or Los Angeles ... a fact I was reminded of today when I got an email commenting on something I had said about "shorter days" - in fact, in summer I can awaken at 4 a.m. and it'll be light outside, and it will still be light at 9 O'clock in the evening. And in winter, the clocks have fallen back by an hour to let the school children get to school in the light ... to spring forward about six months later, with the purpose of giving those same children, on holiday in July and August so that they can help their parents with the harvest, extra time to do their chores in the fields.

The seasons, long nights and short days then short nights and long days, have always been a part of my life - so I don't really think about them. It's commonplace in some seasons to be going to sleep in the light, and common in other seasons to drag yourself out of bed before ever the first glimmer of light is visible over the horizon. And it always been such a part of my life that I'll often overlook the fact that our part of the work is unusual in having so much developed activity so far north. Tokyo is "deep south" at 35°40' and Beijing also quite southern at 39°55' ; looking north to where Russia meets the Pacific at Vladivostok, and you're still only at 43°10'.

Where do I live - perhaps surprisingly after this build up, I live in Southern England - on the same parallel as London, and in a temperate climate that I would compare more to somewhere like Sacramento at 38°35' ; the 'trick' of living so far North, and yet in such a climate suitable for human habitation, comes from the Gulf Stream - that flow of warm water which flows across the Atlantic from the Sargasso Sea (vaguely in the Caribbean, I recall from school lessons many years ago), up past Ireland and Scotland and on up to Scandinavia, which is perhaps why the major cities that I found further north of us were the Norsk ones - Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki and Reykjavik.


Our long and short days, and at the same time our mild climate, are both blessings. You can tell when you fly into a British airport that you're arriving in the United Kingdom before you even touch down - bases on how green everything is. And it's a great spot for a vacation too. The "Old Country" with so much history, and all packed into such a small space too. A day's driving will get you from the South of England to the North of Scotland but for one problem - you'll want to stop and see so many things along the way!


The images I've added into this article are taken at our hotel - "Well House Manor" - or within a very few miles; it's a lovely part of the UK and although our main market is business visitors to the town, we're also delighted to welcome guests who are in England to see places like Lacock - a village dating from the 13th Century, and where the positive / negative photographic process was invented (5 miles), the world heritage site of Bath just 12 miles away, and with a direct bus running there from right outside our front door, and Longleat, Stonehenge, Salisbury and many more places of interest.

With our business connections, our hotel is especially well set up to welcome early checkins by visitors arriving through London's airports as early as 7 O'Clock, and as Lisa is American we're also very well tailored to helping with things that first time visitors to Europe may find a little new. Graham and Chris have lived most of their lives in Wiltshire, but are well travelled - it all leads to a winning combination.

Here's hoping that, dear readers, I may have tempted a few of you to add Wiltshire, England to you "I want to go there sometime" list. And if I have done so, I hope you'll stop by to say "hi" ... or if the accommodation that we offer suits you, that you'll stop with us. If you'll be stopping, it's best to book in advance though - the combination of a mild northern climate, a lovely heritage, and a hotel that's run with the guests to the fore is a winning combination, and we can get full. I'm checking guests in tonight - 4 rooms already arrived, and the fifth set due any minute. In fact, I think that might be a car I hear now on the gravel path.