LBC Members: Ashok, Conrad, Gaelikaa, Helen, Judy, Magpie 11, Maria, Marianna, & Ramana and I are all ready willing and able to turn our thoughts to Weather and Emotions the topic chosen for us this week by Conrad.

WEATHER

Horrible Weather
Staying in bed weather
Cuddling up close weather
Ignoring the world weather

Warm Weather
Go for swim weather
Take a walk weather
Picnic weather

By Alison Smith

Wet Wet Wet are a pop band that formed in Clydebank, Scotland during the 1980s. They scored a number of hits in the British charts and around the world. The band comprises Marti Pellow (vocals), Tommy Cunningham (drums, vocals), Graeme Clark (bass, vocals) and Neil Mitchell (keyboards, vocals). A fifth, unofficial member, Graeme Duffin (lead guitar, vocals), has been with them since 1983.   OK. OK. I stole this information from Wikipedia since I am not a pop fan and only knew of the band by name.  Please do not ask me to name any of their hits as I would not know them.

‘Wet Wet Wet’ in Ireland, perfectly describes our weather for most of the year.  The rain comes in more varieties than Heinz Beans!  We have clouds so heavy with moisture that they look like fog and the water therein hangs in the air to lazy to fall, so it just soaks in through your clothes and pores until it reaches deep into every bone and joint.  This is commonly known as Irish mist, not to be confused with Irish Mist, the coloured stuff that comes in bottles and Americans use to make Irish Coffee (Boy, did that send my emotions and blood pressure sky high [it is a liqueur whiskey to be savoured without addition of coffee and full cream] and even more so when I saw a clip of somebody top the drink with cream from a can!  Sure they might as well have used shaving foam. 🙄 ).

Next we have what Portia describes in The Merchant of Venice as: ‘It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven’…. It might be from heaven and it might be gentle, but when it goes on for days on end it feels more like Hell! It might well be perfect for the garden, but is certainly not perfect for my bones.  Sure ’tis no wunder so many turn to the demon drink in Ireland!

There are ‘April showers’ those short sharp showers, enough to keep down the dust and wash the faces of the flowers in readiness for the sun to peep from behind a cloud.  But being Ireland, this phenomena happens whether it is April or any of the other months, and the sun forgets to play the game properly, leaving us dull dark and damp.

Then we have winter rain, take your choice… well we don’t actually have any choice about it!  It can fall  straight and unending from a sky that is dark and menacing looming no higher than a two story house, or driving icy and slanted by the wind until it cuts into your face like a sharp dagger or pounding and bouncing off the ground like bullets from an M16 rifle.

It is all a very long way from the gentle Nursery Rhyme I learned as a child, with not a mention of rain…

Blow wind, blow
And go, mill, go:
That the miller
May grind his corn;
That the baker may take it,
And into rolls make it
And bring us some
Hot in the morn.