A Man of Many Hats

The shortest day may have passed but it is still very much winter.
In the summer this place may become an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) but right now in the dead of winter it truly is the Arse End Of Nowhere, and as it has different types of rain, hail, snow and other cold wetness falling from the sky, you really do need a variety of hats to deal with them all.
I have mentioned in the past 'ways to tell the weather' in the AEON and another one of the ways is to look at the types of hats that the locals may be wearing when out.

Most people have some sort of leather or oilskin fully waterproof for the torrential downpourings and after that you go into hats of various stages of wet weather and warmth right through to summer ones for eye and sun protection.
A quick look out of the window at any time and as long as you can see through the lashing rain at the hats you can always tell just how much it's raining and how cold it is.

This year I received many hats as Christmas presents as my stock of various weather hats is low. This is because I am still a newbie out here and I have yet to set myself up fully for the various weathers that I see out of the window. hats and gloves and various coats are much needed and very well received, but by far the most talked about and best hats this year were a present from Karl, Sue and family over in the USA.

Without any prior knowledge of the importance of headwear to this very climate sensitive area they sent us matching AEON hats which have gone down a storm in the George and Dragon.

Yes, in a place where hats are a way of life (or death) a good hat is a conversation piece and our new hats have really gone down well with the friends.

Over the last few days there have been a few flickerings of power and once or twice we have wondered if we would be plunged into darkness for a day or four.
It hasn't happened yet, but we are expecting it, probably at the time when the snow is deepest and the logs for the burner are low.
You can tell I'm an optimist eh?

So far it's been a damned easy Christmas. We have not been snowed in, not once! The rain has fell in buckets, but this is the place where all rivers start and so we don't flood, all the water from here usually ends up around the cities causing problems for those who don't live in the wilderness, so we may have to have very fine hats of various types, but we leave the choices of waders to the people in the lowlands.

The lights just flickered again! I am told if the power goes off that the village meets in the pub!
I'm not sure of there is any reason for this other than the ale is hand pulled and they have a huge log fire for warmth it may even be because everyone checks that everyone is ok. I imagine it's the former as that seems to be the better reason, and everyone here likes a reason to meet up so perhaps losing power is a sure time to arrange to meet your mates and have a laugh about the power going off.

Whatever the true reason is, I don't feel (being a newbie) that I should try and change a schedule brought on by years of power loss and community spirit.

It's winter! It's cold, and this is the Arse End of Nowhere!
I have a hat to prove it. I'm not about to fight tradition so if those with more experience think a trip to the pub in the dark is the way that things should be, who am I to argue,  because for sure you can't argue with a man who knows the right headgear for any circumstances, no matter how foolish he looks.