The Damp. That is a big part of it. Once Autumn gets serious around here, we have The Damp. Good and bad. We have it during Summer of course, but then it is the cursed Humidity. There is no "good" part of humidity. It just makes pleasant warm weather miserable. The Damp can be bad too, in that it makes a nice breeding ground for all manner of despicable organisms. But it shows its true colors in what it brings out in those of us who have lineage back to places that also have The Damp. For me, that place would be northern portion of the British Isles. I haven't been there, not in person anyway, but I frequently have Deja Vu when I see pictures and hear songs from that distant land. And not the pretty tourist pictures and the lively music either. The pictures of places that know nothing but the ever present, unrelenting Damp. The mist and the fog and the rain on the brutal landscape of the mountains and valleys. The music that speaks without words about surviving that Damp. "Don't come here" the pictures and melodies say. "This is not a bright and cheery existence" they warn. But the people who made those melodies were there. And they did exist. And existing there meant conquering The Damp. They were conquerors, my ancestors. They conquered The Damp. They conquered the accompanying cold. They conquered the soil, hidden so well within the preponderance of rock. And over time, conquering The Damp and its associated tribulations became the source of pride and accomplishment for them. It became their strength. They thrived on defeating The Damp. Warriors against nature, undaunted by the refusal of The Damp to give up and go away. Survivors. And that is in the melodies as well. "You cannot defeat me" they say. "I will learn to live and prosper in spite of you". And they did. And when the time came to venture away from The Damp at home, they came to a new land. And they brought their melodies with them. And they searched until they found the mist and the fog and the rain on the brutal landscape of the mountains and valleys that they knew they could conquer and thrive in. And they did conquer and thrive. And so did their melodies. Changed ever so slightly to reflect the promise of defeating The Damp in their new home. Their new home in the new mountains and valleys. Where The Damp in the Autumn is unrelenting. And where their descendents continue to survive and conquer and keep the melodies alive. Here in The Damp. The Good Damp.

Be happy and careful