Saturday, January 30, 2010

Rain.

In London the rain falls with grey monotonous regularity , unexceptional, unloved and constant. Just simple, plain rain and a part of the backdrop of daily life . It's not always so. Sometimes , when we used to walk the two boyz along the beach in Scotland the fine North Sea rain, driven angrily landwards by the gales ,would whip and craze our faces like thousands of tiny needle points. We would return home from the shore with our skin red and raw from the elements. Last night we had an new experience, Pyrennean rain - an altogether different sort of downpour caused by the updrafts and thermals from the mountains. Instead of falling in nondescript uniformity it somehow managed to coalesce into large blobs, four or five times the size of ordinary raindrops. This alien rain threw itself determinedly down from the sky, landing on the road with the satisfying sound of eggs sizzling on a pan, and flooding the ditches with torrents of mud . Within a hundred yards, our evening walk had become an uncomfortable affair. We were soon as drenched as if someone had turned a fire hose on us. Wilf and Digby quickly took stock of the situation and made the decision that this was not the weather for a stroll and turned purposefully back towards the house their coats soaked through to the skin. Even those things we most take for granted - like rain - can surprise.

7 comments:

  1. Hey Mongoose...sorry you've been soaked!

    We are soaking ourselves with yesterday's blogpost yet again! I read it to my husband as a bedtime story and can happily say that it certainly did NOT put him to sleep!

    As far as I'm concerned that is your best blogpost yet and I am revelling in it! I read it aloud to everyone in the vicinity and the response is always the same...absolute mirth!

    Thanks again for stirring up the senses(of humour)! Now, go and get yourself dry before you catch the death of cold!
    C IN SOUTH AFRICA

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  2. I don't know that I've ever experienced rain quite like that! I know this may sound silly, but do you have thunder and lightening there? When we lived in Alaska we did not--When we moved back to Virginia after 10 years, it took some getting used to again; but I love it with a good rainstorm!

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  3. so you didn't stay for the artist drawing? not that is hilarious!!
    xo

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  4. I had a similar "fire hose" experience at Glenfinnan once. It seemed as though the rain was shooting up from the ground right into my face. I was laughing so hard I couldn't run properly and therefore, like you, was soaked to the skin in no time. Of course, Edward would never think of venturing out in the rain. The prospect of wet paws is a sufficient deterrent for him.

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  5. What a vivid description. I felt like I was there, although I wasn't soaked!

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  6. For once, I am not envious of you living in France. At all.

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  7. In New York, we can get those gully-washers—downpours with wind to the point that umbrellas are useless and streets are turned into roiling rivers in a matter of minutes. Down here in South Carolina, we're in a semi-tropical environment, where rain can blow in from the sea, drenching one part of the island whilst sun shines on another, a mile away. This morning we awoke to the pinging of raindrops on the fireplace flue, a sure sign to grab a book, pat the snoring terrier and bury back under the covers.

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