WET WEATHER WEAR
The weather still produces rain every day, often really heavy. Though the ground is saturated in places a gardener still has to work. Clearing a bed of spent summer raspberries is ongoing.
I don’t mind being out in foul conditions. The trick is having suitable wet-weather gear. Aside from wellies, which are comfy like shoes and warm with thick socks to boot, my rain gear is at last quite sussed.
Trouser-wise, I don a pair of flourescent yellow trousers, a throw-back from my Council groundsman days. They are completely waterproof. Slits to access trouser pockets are well designed, cut to stay open but resist even persistent rain.
On top goes a hooded smock which I purchased from a shop in the Faroese capital of Torshaven whilst filming pilot whale hunts undercover in 1998. It’s exactly what seamen wear out there on fishing boats – no seams, no flaps or fastenings, just an all-in-one rubbery thing that you stick your arms into then pull over your head.
A baseball cap instead of favourite Tilly completes the outfit. What the cap does is allow the hood to be worn pulled up and not obscure my vision when looking to the left or right. It catches the hood as my head turns and takes it with it. Most useful.
When I was younger either my metabolism was much faster or else energy expended more frenetic. I know this because the smock used to make me sweat even when practically stood still, hence I never wore it. Now I’m older, wiser (?) and slowed down a bit it does the job for which it was designed brilliantly and with utmost comfort.
Copyright, Joe Hashman www.dirtynails.co.uk