A few months after our driest summer in years we are constantly getting wet weather gales and storms. The rain gets through holes and doen chimneys and overflowing guttering.
I want brilliant white clouds floating in azure blue skies. Sunlight on my head and shoulders. Soft breezes, not howling gales. Scents and smells that lift the spirits, not mould and fungus.
So, the spring will come again. I hope to enjoy the rest of winter and then greet spring with open arms.
St. Swithin’s Day, also called St. Swithun’s Day, (July 15), a day on which, according to folklore, the weather for a subsequent period is dictated. In popular belief, if it rains on St. Swithin’s Day, it will rain for 40 days, but if it is fair, 40 days of fair weather will follow. St. Swithin was bishop of Winchester from 852 to 862. At his request he was buried in the churchyard, where rain and the steps of passersby might fall on his grave. According to legend, after his body was moved inside the cathedral on July 15, 971, a great storm ensued. The first textual evidence for the weather prophecy appears to have come from a 13th- or 14th-century entry in a manuscript at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Well it’s raining and blowing a gale, and the local weather forecast is for some rain all next week, so St Swithens might be right. In the meantime Europe is sweltering so I hope some gentle cooling rain gets down to the south of us and rinses the heat dome over southern Europe out of the way.
For all the climate deniers the world has been it’s hottest since records began over the last seven days. Maybe it’s not too late to do something about it, but big business doesn’t want to lose profits.
I sometimes think our outdoor cat knows he’s onto a good thing…. Its been raining heavily and blowing 60 mile an hour winds, but he insists on going outside. The shed door is propped slightly open so he can shelter, but after an hour I shouted him. He came in, a bit damp, had something to eat and drink then went back to the door with my hubby. He was standing there holding the door open, but the cat didn’t want to go out. So then he came and sat on our armchairs (there’s a cushion between us), but no, I tried stroking him, he jumped off and tried out our bedroom, but soon came back downstairs. Now he’s sitting and staring at me. I also think he’s a bit nervous of the noise the gale is making. He keeps staring at the window. I can understand my two indoor cats, but this one is new. I can’t mind read what he wants yet……
There are gales forecast for tomorrow but we might go out for a wet and windy walk round Westport lake in The birth of our city. I live the sound of wind rushing through the trees. You can hear the waves of air coming as first one tree bends and then the next. Air ‘soughing’ through the tree tops. Twigs or sometimes branches snapping off. Bits of tree strewn across the paths. Sometimes we hire bikes to cycle round it, but they won’t be open tomorrow.
In the photo the weather was fair and I think it was early summer. There should be lots of birds there so we will take some brown bread to feed them. That’s if the weather isn’t too foul. I once went for a walk and my phone drowned in the pocket of my waterproof coat. If its like that I might just admire the view from my car.