Weather....or Not?

our home last winter

Weather.

I notice it. 

I think about it.

I comment on it.

I often let my life revolve around it. 


I love sunshine. 
I love temperatures from 70-85 degrees. I love good, cleansing rains. I love hot days and cool nights with a little breeze at night for good sleeping. I love to leave my windows open and breathe in the fresh air. 

I even love parts of winter. 
I love snow. When I can look at it. And walk in it. Especially at night. 
I love to curl up with a good book on a snowy day and read and read and read. 

de-icing - anyone else have a problem with this idea???

BUT I really really do not like to travel in the winter. 


And I usually choose not to. 

de-icing the plane

I do not like the idea of or the possibility of driving 25 mph on bad (snowy/icy) roads, backed-up traffic, passing cars and trucks that have slid off of the road and are now sitting in a ditch, mountain passes, de-icing wings on aircraft, or cancelled flights.  All of that makes me anxious. 

And now that we are living in northern Scotland,  there is all of the above, PLUS the possibility of cancelled trains that take us to meet scheduled flights AND skinny, windy roads that at some points, are fairly steep.   

Winter weather makes me nervous. 

I would much rather stay home.

Last winter was delightful. 

It was a hard winter and we had more snow and ice in the Tri-Cities than I had ever seen in the 19 years we have lived there. 
Schools were closed a handful of times - and even the Hanford site closed several times!!! (almost unheard of) due to snow, yes, but also significant icy roads.  But did that bother me? NO!  
"How is that, you ask? Did you not just describe the things about winter that make you anxious?"  Yes, yes, I did. But I had the joy of having no where to go! I had no job to go to. I had no kids to run around. I had no errands that could not wait. If I needed milk or bread, I could walk to Albertson's. 

I would wake up to the radio announcing a school closure, and rejoice because I could stay home! I would just hunker down in my house and sew. Yes indeed. I sewed to my heart's content. 
And I made soup. 

Sometimes, when it was not icy, I would go walking in it. It was fantastic!  
You know how everything gets so quiet when it is under a blanket of snow? Sometimes you can actually hear the snow falling! So I would put on my boots and my snow pants and go tramping through the snow. Marching, would be more like it, because I had to lift my knees high enough to step over the snow. There was that much.

That was great exercise. Enjoyable exercise. (Just so we are clear, those two words do not normally go together in my vocabulary.)

When the weather gets bad, I like to stay put. 

But what do you do when the weather is always bad? Or just yucky, as it has been here lately? 

The river walking path this fall 

I have been hearing from lots of locals how weird the weather has been here this year.
I have heard how we had such a rainy summer. And how rainy it's been this fall. Much more than usual. And the wind!  

It is a lot like the Tri-City wind that can blow hard for days at a time. But I heard from a local that it is unusual because it has been day after day after day of it. 

They say, normally, it is bad for a few days or a week and then it will be nice for a while (by 'nice' I think they mean no rain or wind. That's how I would describe 'nice' as well. )

Until I heard this, I had accepted that this is the weather we signed up for.  We were told that there is no such thing as bad weather here - only poorly-dressed people. We were told about the cold and the wind that blows the rain sideways. And it does. And so we bought rain pants that go over whatever we are wearing. And boots. And jackets that block the wind. 

I didn't realize I had this picture till I saw it - so you see what I mean?

Mike took this advice to heart. He actually has recently bought one of those ski caps that covers your whole head and face except for a space for the eyes - and then he ordered a pair of goggle-type glasses that suction to his face because the wind kept going around his sunglasses and dried out his contacts.  
So, try to imagine Mike getting out of his car, walking across the parking lot, trying to stay upright in the wind and covered from head to toe with absolutely no skin showing. I wish I had a picture. :)

the soccer field I mentioned, covered in hail

Hail. I have never seen so much hail! It has been hailing on and off for 7-10 days now.  
It really came down last Thursday night. Mike and I were at a yoga class when this really loud clamoring started. We looked out the window and it was hailing - thick as a heavy Portland rain! I wish I could have caught a picture of it. And the young men playing soccer across the way just kept right on playing through it! And 5 minutes later, it had passed. 

hail - outside the back of our flat

Putting aside possible road conditions when I have to travel, on regular days, it's the wind I try to avoid. 

I really do not mind the rain. I do not mind the hail or the snow. But the wind will keep me home almost every time. Unfortunately for me, I have had to learn to just go, even if it is windy. But I do try to get everything done that has to be done at one time, like get my groceries at the end of my walk so that I don't have to go back out again. 

hail on our deck on Black Friday

When I was a child living in England, I remember the rain. It drizzled pretty much all the time. We were only going to live there for a few years, and we had to take advantage of the time we had there,  so that meant learning to do things in the rain. 
We watched many a soccer game in the rain. And banger races. 
I don't know if banger races would be considered an English version of a demolition derby, since I have never been to a demolition derby, but what a fun time of rain and mud and cars slip sliding around a 'track.'  I am sure it was the rain and mud that made it so fun. 
We did a lot of camping then, so we put the tent up in the rain and took it down in the rain. In fact, I remember trying hard to stay away from the sides of the tent at night but still waking up to a wet sleeping bag in the morning.  
If we had not learned to do things in the rain, we would not have seen or done very much during our time in England. 

sunrise

That's sort of how it is here. The wind blows. Pretty much every day. Sometimes it is gusty - 30, 40 or more mph. Sometimes, like this very moment as I write, it is pretty calm. 





But if I have learned anything about the weather here, it is this. If you don't like it, wait 30 minutes. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. It will change. 

So if it's raining just when I am ready to go to the Pentland Hotel for coffee, then I wait 10 minutes and it passes. 

Case in point: I went out walking this morning. It has been much harder these past 2 weeks because I have lost my walking partners temporarily, as they went to the US for Thanksgiving. It has been lonely walking alone and it is also now dark at 7:30. So, I have reluctantly moved the time back to 8:00, since the sky is light then. I almost didn't go out today. The wind has been howling all night and it was raining off and on and it was 34 degrees. Three strikes.

But I told myself, "Just go. If it's too yucky, you can just come home." 

So I bundled myself up.

This is not a pretty sight, but then, it's not a fashion show, right? It's just me, trying to get in some fresh air and movement so that the shortbread biscuits I eat every day with my tea don't take up residence. 

Bundling myself up looks like this: my yoga pants for warmth, followed by my exercise pants. A tank shirt for warmth, followed by my turtle neck shirt. Heavy socks. 

THEN I put on the outer wear - lightweight rain pants, my hoodie sweatshirt, a waterproof wind jacket, mittens and tennis shoes (or trainers, as they are called here). 

It's quite the process. Every day as I put all of that on, I say to myself, "this is ridiculous."

(The picture above is one that was taken in June on a rainy day, so I am wearing rain pants. It was long before I needed to add the extra layers of pants, shirts, hoodie sweatshirt and mittens. )

the river walk at flooding stage

So, I started walking. And  it was cold this morning. I usually am pretty bundled up so that I am not really cold inside - just the part of my face that is exposed. Well, my thighs do get frozen even with the layers. But today I was pretty chilled all the way through and thought I might not last very long. At least the howling wind was at my back to begin. I walked up to the cemetery and around it. Then I turned around and saw the dark clouds in the sky. 

Now, inexperience would have said "Oh no!  I'm going to be stuck out here!" But I know how this works now. So, I made my way through the cemetery as hail started to come down. And dang, if that hail didn't bounce back up and hit me in the eye!  Seriously! 

As I made my way back to the entrance, I saw a bus shelter. 
Yes, I said a bus shelter. In the cemetery. 
No, I do not know why.  
I just stepped inside and waited.  It was actually pretty cool. And within minutes, the hail had passed, the dark clouds had moved on and the sky was lightening. 

Just after the hail stopped, the sky 'cleared' and there was blue

And then, just a handful of minutes later, the blue sky broke through and there were big, puffy clouds and I could see the sun trying to come up. And then the wind died down and turned into a slight breeze. And it was actually pretty nice. 

Just like that. 

Welcome to Thurso. 

I have heard that expression "if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes," from many places  I have lived - Reno, Idaho Falls, Virginia, Tri-Cities. But it is actually true here. 

standing water    -    and the sunrise just after the hail

When it rains a lot, the water has nowhere to go. The ground cannot absorb it all because - if I understand correctly - there is a lot of stone not far from the surface. So the water sits and makes little 'ponds.'



Also from what I understand, a lot of the 'lakes' you see here do not have a river source. They are filled because of rain water that cannot drain anywhere.  

What I get to see here when it rains is that the river floods. 
I have heard it has flooded the higher banks here by the bridge, but not since I have been here. 
That would be pretty cool to see from our flat, since we overlook the river. 
And when the river floods, you cannot see the low tide in the river. It just stays full. 

These are my friend, Marjorie's dogs on the path 

But last week it flooded the walking paths along the river, where I enjoy walking. Now, if I had wellies, I would be able to walk right through that flood water and that would be quite fun. 

Most people walk their dogs through it - and this is why I think Thurso dogs are the happiest dogs on earth. They have the beach and the river and their owners let them use them. Sand, water, mud. I think it just makes for happy dogs. 

Speaking of weather, though, I want to tell you that I have seen more rainbows here in the last 2 months than I have seen in the last 5 years!! And often, they are double rainbows. Pretty amazing. 

Most of those times, I did not have my camera with me, but I was fortunate this time to capture one. 

As I sit here and finish writing this, I can see another bunch of white clouds coming up in the distance and some light blue sky behind them. Incredible. 
It reminds me that this weather - this rain, this wind, this hail and this cold - is not all there is. This, too, shall pass. 

sunset about a month ago

It may affect what I choose to do at times, but it will not keep me from enjoying being here. 







I will definitely be more comfortable beginning January 8, when we will be home from several trips we are taking over the next month that involve planes, trains and automobiles.  

We will put on our boots, our rain pants, and even our suction glasses if we must, 

but also, hopefully, our shorts and sunglasses.