So writes a friend from Mexico: a Brit who settled in that country some time ago, and who returns occasionally to visit family and friends, and get fixes of beer, tea, haddock and chips.

We have changeable weather in these islands, and lots of it. We also have the most incredibly beautiful landscape and coasts. My friend writes that the ruggedness of the British coasts and the serious weather, “…have a depth, a resonance that I don’t find in the bright white beaches, emerald green oceans and deep blue sky of the Mexican coasts.”

That is an interesting comment, and I’ve heard similar elsewhere. It’s interesting to note how often people indigenous to sunnier climes remark in similar ways when they first encounter the cold, damp north, with its landscape illuminated by a sun hanging low in the sky. There is indeed a depth and resonance to the natural world up here that you don’t get around the equator.