When it’s grey and miserable it’s easy to think that wintery weather means there’s nothing to do, but this month Year of Our Island is celebrating all the things that you can get up to both indoors and outdoors on our island in winter.

The team has been speaking with people from around the Isle of Man to find out what you love about this time of year and how you spend your rainy days.

Laura from Ballasalla said: ’I don’t mind the rain and my daughter loves it!

’She gets so excited when she sees puddles starting to appear on the ground.

’It’s actually quite hard to stop her from running through them; which can be a bit of a nightmare when she hasn’t got her wellies and coat on!’

Jay from Farmhill is kept busy by his three children in winter.

’We’re an active family and we do a lot of sports through the NSC. There’s sports club on a Monday, hockey on a Tuesday, dancing on Saturday and martial arts three times a week,’ said Jay.

’Peel breakwater is best when it’s really wild and wet. We get a cup of tea and toast from the cafe and just sit there watching the waves.

’Then we amble about around the castle and try to see the Moddey Dhoo. The kids love it.’

Oscar and his mum Caroline split their time between the swings at Onchan Park, swimming, cycling and gymnastics and Caroline says that even in winter there’s still a lot to discover about the island.

’We have heritage cards and Oscar has his ACE card, so he gets into heritage sites for free. We go to the Manx Museum, which is nice because its exhibitions change throughout the year.’

Anne and Paul from Douglas are duty bound to brave the outdoors whatever the weather.

’We tend to walk quite a bit because we have dogs.’ said Anne.

’Archallaghan is one of our favourite places to walk. We’ve lived here all our lives and I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.’

And Year of Our Island wants you to get involved by sharing your Rainy Days Story with us on Facebook.

The team is offering two tickets to Manannan’s Winterfest in December, a new evening of Manx music supported by Year of Our Island, to those who are willing to let us know how you spend your winter weekdays and weekends.

All that potential entrants need to do to be in with a chance of winning is like the Year of Our Island Facebook page @ourisland2018 and comment on the pinned post.

To find out more about November’s range of events or to share your Rainy Day Story go online to ourisland.im, email [email protected] or follow our social media @ourisland2018.

by The Year of Our Island project team

www.ourisland.im