CRACKING spell of weather we've been having. Leavened, of course, with those time-honoured Lochaber words: "As long as it's not our summer...".

A LETTER to The Independent earlier this week read: "Given the late spring this year, may I be the first to report that I have neither seen a swallow, nor heard a cuckoo."

I'VE lost count of the number of times, over the years, that I have written the phrase: "It always snows on Sunday".

HERE we are in April already. And variegated weather patterns in the first two days.

THERE were quite a few folk in Lochaber rolling snowballs instead of Easter eggs at the weekend.

SINCE the Ides we've been doing pretty well, weatherwise.

I'VE said it before many times – it always seems to snow on Sundays. And so it came to pass again, even if there was comparatively little of it left at the end of the day.

AYE, March came in like a Lion – and flung everything at us. Including Snowy White Snow, albeit no Jingle Bells.

THAT'S the rain on, I see ... But I hope it's a dry day when Fred and Feya van Voss have next month's Lochaber Life delivered to their Blarachaoruinn homestead.

“BACK to the usual!” That was the Wednesday morning comment in Lochaber after the February rain bubble finally burst.

FINE spell of weather in Lochaber. As the older persons say: "Long may it continue."

THAT’S us well into February, then, with the weather a bit more settled than of late. Which is just as well after all the rain we've experienced so far in 2008.

IT'S February tomorrow (Friday) – and snow's forecast. And I'm minded of our primary school rhyme, although I don't know why because the weather has been predominantly wet so far this year.

WEATHER variable. However, lots of places in England appear to be usurping our rainfall claims.

WEATHER? In the past week we've had just about everything thrown at us.

TRADITIONALLY, I start off the Roamer with the weather. It is with great sadness, however, that I have to advise of the passing, on Tuesday of this week, of Ron Thomson, the man who, for years, provided this column with his monthly compilation of the Fort's rainfall figures, sunshine and temperatures.

"THAT was the year that was." And here we are in the leap year already – but not too late to complete a round-up of The Best of Roamer 2007.

SEASON'S Greetings. I had hoped to provide mostly light reading in the Roamer column between Christmas and New Year.

Global Warming? Who prefers the Lochaber Rain to the current Lochaber Frost?

WEATHER? Variable! On Wednesday morning, for example, it was "too bright, too early".

VERY windy, very wet – and unseasonably mild. That seems to have been our meteorological mix so far this week.

DECEMBER on Saturday, already. And the weather? According to the weekend papers we’re heading for “another mild and damp winter”.

THE weather's a bit more settled this week. Which is just as well for all those far-travelled Lochaber folks returning from holidays in foreign lands, having got used to more exotic climes.

MORE inclement elements than clement elements this week so far.

YOU may be slightly surprised to learn that, as per Ron Thomson's monthly weather round-up, we had less than half the amount of rain in October 2007, than in October 2006!

GEY dreich weather. What with rain, wind, cold – and snow on the tops.

OUR Lochaber weather continues to be clement – as the time approaches for the clocks to go back.

"FAILTE agus Slainte" have been the order of the week. And, all the while, the Mod Week weather has improved.

VARIEGATED weather patterns as the Mod approaches. But then, as was voiced by the convener of the 1981 Mod, Lochaber does have a rainfall reputation to live up to.

SO you thought we didn't have the best of weather in September 2007 – apart from the last few days?

SUNSHINE at last as we approach – October! Already.

GEY Dreich! Ben Nevis had two inches added to its stature at the weekend, as a result of a snap snowfall.

LET'S come back down to earth after the Feeding of the Forty Thousand in Lochaber last week.

HELLO. In the midst of the mist and rain, let's get in Ron's August weather report before moving on to (figuratively) the Torlundy cycle pathway, and then coming back down to earth with the Fort William dig.

THE Lochaber weather plays second fiddle this week to the Lochaber traffic gridlock.

IN previous years I've tended to rely on Edna O'Brien's book title, "August is a Wicked Month", to describe our local weather.

MIXED bag of meteorology since my last report! Apparently tomorrow (Thursday) as I write this, or today (Thursday) as most of you read it, is supposed to be pretty wild – in keeping with the start of the “grouse” season.

“THE sun is shining in the sky – and the birds are singing in the trees”.

I’M writing this on August 1. Lammastide. In some parts of Scotland that’s “Lughnasad”.

SO far this year, in Ben Nevis Book Corner at least, we’ve had fewer weather queries from visitors, like: “Does it always rain in Fort William?” “Does it never stop raining in Fort William?”

NEVER mind the weather. Well, it certainly has been a bit varied.

WEATHER? Well, we’re heading for St Swithin’s Day on Sunday, and it certainly hasn’t been summery so far in July.

IT’S that time again, the start of a new month.

WE'VE no bovver wiv the wevver. Certainly, it has been quite unpredictable since Thursday, The Longest Day. But we didn’t get the Glastonbury Summer Solstice mudbaths. Nor the downpours of the St John’s Eve Rothiemurchus and Midsummer Ingliston events. Still less the torrential Yorkshire rain. However, the daytime temperature did drop 10 degrees in the space of a week.

A BIT kinna dreich today – by our June standards. But, as most locals agree, we don’t have extremes of weather. Unlike our twinned town of Dudley in the West Midlands where the metropolitan boroughers experienced a TORNADO on Friday.

SO many people said at the beginning of May – “I hope that wasn’t our summer!”

IT’S wall to wall sunshine as I write. That’s because the view out of my office window consists of walls and – just now – sunshine.

NE’ER cast a cloot… Aye, the weather mixture’s measuring up to that auld saw – with May just aboot oot.

THERE’S no doubt about it, the Lochaber weather continues to provide a daily talking point.

THE mixture as before. Sunshine and a few showers. But not all that warm.

BEFORE I get bogged down with election comment, I was interested to see that the inclement weather, normally reserved for the first day of the Six Days Trials, arrived right on cue.

WALL to wall sunshine. Temperatures in the middle seventies – like one or two of our local worthies.

WHILE Dingwallian, Gail McGrane, has been airing the meteorological moves on radio and TV all week. We're still awaiting the sound of the Cow Hill cuckoo rising above the dawn chorus.

THE elements finally relented in April, and gave us a wee drop rain.

JUST a few of those April Showers! However, we were doing very well, weatherwise, this month, right up until Easter Sunday, when the mists and the smirr arrived.

ALTHOUGH we all basked in the sun for the last few days of March, the Fort still managed to experience three times as much rain during the month compared to that period of last year.

THE Lochaber weather. "Beautiful just," as Lillian Peckwitt would have said.

WEATHERWISE, touch wood, Lochaber appears to be having the best of it – yet again.

“GALE” McGrain, at the BBC weatherdesk, summed it up more than adequately at 8am on Tuesday.

ALREADY March is proving as unpredictable as ever – rains, gales and sunshine. And that’s even before we need to beware the Ides.

IT’S been all change on the weather front for the last few days of February, with Tuesday and Wednesday giving us a blowy and wet, wet, wet reminder of what we had to endure throughout virtually all of January!

SPRING has sprung. Where it usually does – in the St Andrew’s Churchyard in Fort William.

THERE has been a right mixture of the elements this past week. And I've been looking at weatherman Ron Thomson's five-year statistics. They make interesting reading.

THA fuar, fuar! Taters in the mould. Brass monkey weather.

FEBRUARY already. Continuing mild, hopefully, but always with “precipitation in sight”. In next week’s column we’ll have the weather statistics for 2007 so far, and these should make for some interesting reading.

AS this edition of the Lochaber News is coming out on Burns Day, you might as well prepare for the verse.

I LOOKED out of the window on Tuesday morning and exclaimed: “It’s dry outside”!

AYE that’s us back to old clothes and muesli. And banana. As they say these days, instead of “old clothes and porridge”.

AYE, folks, it’s nearly past that time again. I’ve been browsing through 52 consecutive copies of the Lochaber News to come up with a cross section of items which could constitute The Best of Roamer 2006.

SOME of the sights, and sounds, and non-sounds of the festive season?

THE weather’s a lot more settled just now. But, earlier on in December, Fort William “rained” supreme.

TWELVE days of Christmas? More like 12 days of persistent precipitation!

THAT’S real rain we’ve been having this month. In fact, it had been persisting down to the effect that the precipitation has averaged out at about two inches a day!

WEATHER predictable. With showers in between the heavy rain.

WELL, there’s nothing original I can say about the weather! Lots of sea level snow on Friday; plenty rain before and after – but a change for the better today.

I’M not sure whether to mention weather this week. It’s been gey dreich since my previous pronouncements.

WE’RE fast making in-roads into November already. And some very acceptable weather patterns are emerging.

REMEMBER, Remember. The first of November. Because it was a fine start to the month, with a nice dry day.

SO that’s October fast receding. A mild month, albeit a bit colder on Tuesday. Ah, but will there be snow on the Ben before this time next week?

WELL, the schools' mid-term holiday weather has certainly been mild enough. Changeable, autumnal at times, but OK for getting out and about.

AUTUMN in Lochaber. The weather is providing an October feel-good factor - and long may it continue.

IT'S hard to believe it's October already - as so many people have observed this week. But at least the weather has been quite settled so far!

A METEOROLOGICAL mix - this weather. Balmy breezes at the weekend. Followed by goldfish being decanted 50 feet out of a garden pond and into a puddle muddle after a Ballachulish landslide.

HURRICANE Gordon. That's certainly the fastest I've ever seen him moving Otherwise, I won't mention "the weather" except in passing, as ours has been a major meteorological mix over the past week. Suffice it to say that, despite the emphasis on cold, wet and wind, the midges were menacing in Glen Nevis last Friday evening.

BETTER spell of weather.

"DREICH", says I, last week.

DREICH!

STILL no real sign of the promised August heatwave. But, yet again, our Lochaber weather has been pretty good by comparison.

“DREICH” is the word for it as I write this. Outdoors, I mean!

NEVER mind the weather. We'll just have to make the most of what we're having, as August begins to disappear over the horizon at an alarming rate!

AUGUST already. Yesterday morning in Fort William High Street, I was interested to note the progress of one elderly gentleman "with attitude".

THIS is like the July we remember from our school holidays, all those few decades ago.

SUMMER in Lochaber. And with these blue skies and heat - our area is hard to beat.

A REAL meteorological mixture this week. Perhaps "changeable" may be the most appropriate word.

WELL, what can I say about this wonderful wevver that hasn't seen the light before?

THIS wevver is a bit more like it. I say "wevver" in the light of the University of Glasgow study which reveals this week that that city's young fans of EastEnders are "unwittingly" adopting a Cockney twang.

MIDSUMMER! And what can I say about the variegated weather?