Plus ça change

My visitor has gone. I'm back in Blogland. This time I may never catch up with previous posts but hopefully I'll at least find out how everyone is. 

Wendy from my New Zealand family was alone this time for the first time. Having 'family' staying is very different to having visitors and, as I put her on my car insurance, Wendy was free to go and visit friends whist I could catch up in the garden and polycarb. Of course we have lots of friends in common too and visited or met for coffee. It was strange to be a passenger in my own car and very relaxing.  

We've had some fabulous weather (including yesterday and the previous day when Wendy flew to her Mother's in Edinburgh) and some not so good. However this morning I woke to very strong winds, heavy rain and wild sea. 

Heavy sea and strong wind from my kitchen window

I was just about to rail against such weather in August when I decided, instead, to see what I'd posted about 10 years ago on this day. What a coincidence. I was posting about the gales in August.

Well I'm not intending to go out today. I went to the postbox and posted a birthday card, Yesterday I did my shopping for Sunday dinner - friends are coming - and visiting and my Saturday morning coffee date is off to Sicily for a few days.  The weather will probably prevent any gardening.  

Post script: A couple of hours after the previous photo above:

A Walk in the Rain

As is so often the case these days my blog posts are not exactly frequent: I'm not a YP, a Cro or a Rachel. I've actually had a strange month so far. When it started I had a single day in Glasgow booked at The Beatson and a few days  arranged down with Anna to enjoy some Glasgow life. I had three blog posts on what I consider interesting topics to be worked upon. Then everything altered. I've damaged my shoulder and that resulted in doc, physio and x-rays appointments.  Then there came calls arranging for me to have my uretic stent replaced in Ayr.  So I am now in Glasgow and, having had my pre-op, I am isolating until I go in for my op tomorrow. 

Today it has rained constantly: mostly very heavy drizzle that soaks you through without you noticing. Yesterday we walked 3 miles along the local canal. It was a very boring stretch in indifferent weather. Today we decided to walk round Hogganfield Loch. It's in a splendid 48 hectare park in the North-East of Glasgow. It was raining that fine drenching rain that soaks you before you've realised it. We were well prepared.

Mute and Whooper Swans

The rain eased off at the end

On Getting Wet

Pluviophile (should that be pluvia (L.) meaning rain?): A lover of rain; someone who finds joy and peace of mind during rainy days. Antonym: Ombrophobe.

So long as I am prepared for it I don't mind walking in the rain. When I was a youngster we spent our holidays in North Wales or in The Lake District. Our annual holiday were always in August (school holidays and Dad's holidays) which was the busiest month for those areas. However, August was also the wettest summer month in North Wales and The Lake District.

The family's big love was walking up hills and mountains. Bearing in mind that we had waterproofs which were well behind the modern day standards of breathable, overnight drying materials, we often started out with waterproofs not much drier than we had arrived home the previous evening. 

We decided that it was such an inevitability that there was no use moaning about it so we simply got on with it and decided whether we were going to be Lesser Wetted Hikers or Greater Wetted Hikers that day.

Even today I am very happy to go out for my walk however wet it is. But then I have superb waterproof gear and by the time I arrive at The Woodlands for my morning coffee after my morning walk and have hung up my waterproofs I'm as happy as Larry. A far cry from my Lake District days.

I'm not, however a pluviophile. Today started out dry. The afternoon was dry. I went to a funeral at midday. On Lewis the coffin is carried by the mourners in turn for as long as it takes for every mourner to have a 'lift'. (A good Lewis tradition worthy of a post perhaps). I was wearing a Crombie (heavy wool overcoat). I was wearing black leather town shoes. During the half hour that it took to carry the coffin the heavens opened. We got wet. There is nothing heavier nor more uncomfortable than a soaking Crombie and wet town shoes.

Waterlilies

The rain it rained just as the first waterlilies of the season were making an effort to open in my pond:

The first waterlily of the season tries to make a show in the world but struggles as the rain starts

I found the raindrops clinging to the waterlily fascinating

And then came the really heavy rain and the patterns in the pond water

The waterlily seemed to be sinking in the boiling water

Rain Rain

There is an old nursery rhyme (come to think of it are there any new nursery rhymes?) which goes:

Rain rain go away,

Come again another day.

Little Johnny wants to play;

Rain, rain, go to Spain,

Never show your face again!

My Mum used to say:

Rain rain go away

Come again on washing day.

I thought of that this morning because I have things to do outside and with the car and it's pouring - yet again. Then I thought how irrelevant both the above are in this day and age.  Little Johnny (in the UK at least) is far more likely to want to play on his computer or watch TV than go and play outside.  Washing day?  This is a concept swept away with modern washing machines, women going out to work, tumble driers and an ethos of wear-it-once which was a luxury few could afford or indeed think of in my childhood.  Now if something is worn for half a day into the wash it goes.  Let Mum (or Dad) deal with it.

Just a thought.

Raindrops

 

Thunderstorm

Since I left the Island the weather has been pretty indifferent to say the least although it's been fine on the Island (of course). Yesterday afternoon it excelled itself. The clouds gathered and the sky darkened, the rains started in earnest and everywhere suddenly flooded as the drains failed to cope. This is the view from Gaz's front window.

After the first splash

More splash

Then the serious stuff

Images of Rain in Glasgow

The Rain it Raineth

So far this spring and summer we've had very little rain. In July we had 26.5mm (a smidgen over 1") of rain. Yesterday in half an hour we had 12.5mm (nearly 1/2"). It's raining this morning too. So far 58 hours into August we have had 25.5mm of rain. The garden needed it. I blame Pat though. She and David have a daughter, Kate. Kate returned on Thursday from 8 months in the sun. Pat has been saying every day for ages "Just wait, the weather will change as soon as Kate arrives home.". I wonder if Pat knows just what powers she has.

Raindrops in The Pond

There is something beautiful and very soothing about watching rain falling into water.

Of course it's even more beautiful and soothing if you can sit in the warm sun and look at the blue sky reflected from the surface instead. But there we are. We can't have everything.