Back End

After one of the hottest summers most of us can remember in a long time, we’re now entering the time of year my dad has always called ‘back end’. As with many of Gordon Medd’s weather related catchphrases, another being ‘it’s warm behind glass,’ although I may not fully understand them, I totally get them.

October really is the marker post that heralds autumn and beyond (pretty much like the Hatfield and The North sign that sits at the bottom of the A1). And for me it also flicks a switch in my head lighting up a little circuit board full of things like soup, jumpers, de-icer, dark mornings, central heating, mulled wine, floodlights at half-time and tea pot & telly nights. It will also soon be time to reconvene the Whisky Focus Group: our small ad hoc collective comprising single malt devotees who, on a Sunday afternoon as the light is fading, love nothing better than to taste and try whiskies from as many Scottish distilleries as they can get their hands on. Sampling anything from the peaty reek of a 10 year old Laphroaig to a hospital corridor smelling Talisker our informal group is now entering its third year. And, if the long range weather forecast is anything to go by, it will be distractions like the WFG that could well be my guiding light through the back end and the inevitable cold winter that follows.