Sunshine and Showers

It has been raining outside this morning but thankfully l managed to get S into school before it came teeming down. We even managed a detour on route to drop some books off at the charity shop - part of the ongoing spring clearout.

The upside of living where we do (Scotland’s west coast) is the dramatic scenery but the downside has to be the rain (although my father-in-law might argue the Midge instead!).
Certainly we have ample vocabulary to describe the rain, describing the action of it, its direction and intensity. Perhaps we do this to help in our acceptance of it- like an Inuit with ‘summer snow' or a Texan with 'a baking sun'. Somehow by making it more interesting we build up forbearance and learn to live with it. To talk about the changeable weather is our national pastime - we don’t even realise we’re doing it anymore – like tapping the barometer on the way out of the door or packing wet weather gear in with packed lunch!
It must be noted however that there is also a special Gaelic word for when it stops raining- ‘turadh’- just don’t ask me to say it.
Yesterday it stopped raining so l took more pictures (below).

After picking up S from school yesterday we walked along the shore and climbed up c*astle hill. We bought an ice cream at the café below and before heading home bumped into my sis-in-law out strolling along the prom with her S also. Nephew S had such a wonderful smile for us and shared licks of ice cream with his cousin before we parted. Everyone was in a sunshiny mood.