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potato blight
October 2009 
The Bright Winter
Posted on Aug 16th, 2008
by 
Sandra
Sandra
Okay, so I just have to get this out of my system and then I'll never talk about it again, okay?
Bob Dylan - Buckets Of Rain
We moved to Ireland about two months ago. Since then, we might have had 5 days without rain, and maybe 5 days which had mostly sun. Today was, unbelievably, one of those days.
However, since we arrived, we have had every kind of imaginable rain possible. We've had drizzle, storms, bucketing rain, misty rain, sheets of rain, intermittent rain, showers with sunny spells, moderate rain, galeforce winds with rain, ongoing rain, hail, pouring rain, endless rain, heavy rain, foggy rain, very heavy rain, thunderstorms, a light sprinkle of rain, torrential rain, a drenching, extreme rain and even sun AND rain at the same time (well heck, why not).
It has, as they say, been the wettest summer in living memory. There are not only weather warnings, but potato blight warnings (potato blight pores develop when it's above 10C and humidity is over 75% for 2 days or more. hah hah.).
The weather has even affected Ireland's chance in the Intercontinental Cup (for cricket) (not that I pay the remotest attention to such things normally).
As Bock the Robber ("offending everybody since 2006" ) says:
It’s like living on the set of Blade Runner, but without the replicants or the flying police or the interesting Oriental back-room retailers.,,I have decided to issue an edict. From now on, we will no longer refer to this season as Summer. Likewise, Spring and Autumn are formally abolished.
Henceforth in Ireland, people shall speak only of the Bright Winter and the Dark Winter.
A Horse With No Name
Access: Public
I think it's time for some sunshine in Ireland and some rain in other parts of the world. The poor drenched kitty cat, the sodden potatos, and the soaked earth. It's time for the energy to move a little towards the drought areas, don't you think? We're rooting for you, Sandra!
It's raining here today. Perhaps we traded. :)
Sending you some rays of mother sun…
I'm about to blog the entire email this so-apt kitty is from. Normally I NEVER pass such things on, but this one is irresistible !!!
I feel for you. We know something about days on end of rain, here in Seattle. It inhibits movement, and being outside, and thus causes the consciousness to contract. Have to actively work to counteract that.Be sure to take your extra vitamin D !!
I sent you some of our extra degrees here, but I think they are traveling westward from here, so might take awhile to arrive, dang it.
Rain does clean the air. We are choking on pollution. “It's an ill wind that blows no one any good.” Take a few breaths for me.
And here are some sunny hugs:
ooooooo
Love, OM
Can you hear me laughing hysterically, all the way from the lakes of Cavan?
There's a new lake here, by the way…it USED TO BE my wee farm!! I put some photos on the blog at stonyriverfarm.blogspot.com , photos I took for the insurance company so they could have a laugh before telling us “No….”
Our river went mad, swept its bridge away, drowned my whole kitchen garden in filthy mud, and sent the pony and hens running for higher ground. Then it ran through my polytunnel, and I'm spitting mad.
But, well…that's summer for you.
It's nature's way of telling the Irish “You shouldn't work so hard in your garden…no, you should be having a holiday in France”.
Yay France!
So here I am: after weeks of reading your blog, I finally figured out signing up and can join you here! I'm slow at things like this, but moving on it… slating a photo for later today. LOL
It's the rain. Makes me sleepy.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
What a treat to read you all this morning! Thanks for the sunshiney words. I do know that the warmth & brightness lives inside, and I'm doing my best to keep it up…
Susan! Great to have you here my fellow wet-weather-writer in Ireland.
(btw, her blog is just great, go and have a look, some excellent tips for writers and much more)
O.M. Yes I think the air is pretty clean by now.. unless there's acid rain blowing in from the industrial holes of Europe (sorry, but take a look at who you are writing to! Meow!).
Kathy, wouldn't it be wonderful if there was some system whereby we can pipe all this wet to drought areas. I was thinking which is worse: flooding or a drought. I guess one is quick the other slow (in terms of ultimate finality). I might be more positive about being rained on if it wasn't destroying all my baby seedlings and giving some weird fungus to my sage plant.
And, just in case anyone thinks I'm complaining needlessly… I did feel a bit guilty writing this blog last night as at the time the rain has stopped.
However, all guilt has completely disappeared on waking this morning to continuous showers. Hmm, I think there are a few more rain epithets I forgot: mizzle. I like that one, always have wanted to use it and now I have. Not to mention blanketing rain, which I read in today's Sunday Times. Oh, and flooding. More about that in a minute.
I also read that a Dublin-Cork train was partially de-railed yesterday (no one was harmed); and that the rain so far is four times the average for this time of year.
Want more? Well, there has been severe flooding in the country, especially Tipperary. Some roads are impassable.
Met Eireann said this about the rain last weekend: “…the incident was what we refer to as a one-in-150-year event. It was exceptional, a month's rain in a day.”
oh, and just in case you wanted further proof that I'm not just making general whine about wet weather, a resident in Kilkenny discovered trout swimming up the main street.
:-)
Trout swimming up main street?? No, Sandra, this whine is obviously very much needed! No apologies needed…..someone just needs to find the fishing poles. :)
Kathy, would you believe I've never fished in my whole life? I guess there is always a first time!
oh my. My beloved has just informed me that in Newfoundland and Labrador they have had two weeks of rain in half a day… which curiously works out to be the same as Dublin's month in a day. Hmmm. Are Newfies Irish? Or what's going on here??!
Sandra I am appalled! You have never fished in your whole life? One of the greatest leisurely pleasures in life? OMG! Get to main street and throw a line! You can gently let the fish go if you don't want to eat/kill them (usually, I must add). Well, maybe better to find a little lake or pond. This made me remember a time in Florida when I looked out my kitchen window and saw a dude canoeing in my front yard.
Okay, we haven't had rain for two, maybe three, months. We need to just trade places for a week or so.
I love those brightly colored and flowered and polka-dotted rain boots that are so popular now. Have you purchased a pair? Maybe that would cheer you up a bit. They are so cute!
Trying to send sunshine again! Yes, to taking some Vitamin D.
Love, Ayla
LOL you will have to learn to tickle trout!!!! We are having much the same weather here in UK, everything is late ripening. due to the lack of sunshine. Fortunately we live almost at the top of a hill and the veg are in raised beds. Maybe we will get a late indian summer if we are lucky.
Ayla…Polka dotted rain boots?? in Ireland?? The pair I have are the required 2 sizes too big and army-green. Very cute on my man (his pair fit).
Zephyr.. yes I heard its wet over there too. We also live at the top of a hill but my beds are definitely sunken. sigh…. but yes to an Indian Summer, please!
Oh and we had a couple of hours of sunshine yesterday!! Woooweee! I went out and hacked away at some trees just to let it in.
Sandra, it sounds like perfect weather for Diving and I'm sure you're doing that- Why do you think I left “the auld sod”? I was rained on constantly in my youth but was wise enough to know that there were other possibilities. “What does it matter if it rains outside, if the sun is shining in your soul?” is a twee little quotation that I find to have the quality of being balanced, in that it is about equally true and false…. because as you and I know, it does matter, of course. Maybe the weather in ireland is one explanation for the phenomenal number of phenomenal writers Ireland has produced, the Samuels, the Oscars, the James , the Jonathans, the Mikes….. One has to keep creative and occupy the mind and soul
.best wishes, Mike
Oh, Sandra! That would dampen anyone's spirits. I am huffing and puffing and blowing some warm California wind your way. We would love some rain around here, though to look at things, you'd think there's nothing missing: crystal blue skies, a soft breeze, day after day.
I loved your descriptions of all the types of rain you've encountered – and expect you will see many more variations on them. Just think of all the possibilities those adjectives afford…
misty drizzle, intermittent hail, a light sprinkle of rain with galeforce winds, moderate foggy rain, sheets of drizzle with sunny spells, endless torrential rain …
The possibilities are unlimited!
:-)
Warm Cali hugs,
Balder
Well Sandra, think of the lashings of lolly (i.e.) money you are saving on Sun blocking creams, lotions , tanning oils and various ointments and assorted onctions. Surely enough for you to treat yourself to a nice Sunny holiday in some Awsomly arid and superbly sunshiny, far-flung exoticly exciting destination,
wishes,
Mike
Mike, Balder… lovely to have you stop by..
Moderate foggy rain. That's the best description yet! And is, as Mike will attest, what they call a 'soft day' here! I don't know if the weather is helping my writing, but I can say I am managing to get some work done so that's good.
Would you believe it is **sunny** today - that kind of once a upon a time typical English ( oops sorry everyone who is Irish) summer where it's almost tropical, time to laze around the lawn and listen to the occasional thump of a cricket bat in the distance while downing a Pimms.
xo
Sandra, maybe, you & I & Susan & others can co-author, a fictional work on the Joys of an Irish Summer and add some dry humour, in case our eyes flood with nostalgic tears (well mine anyhow -seeing as you and Susan are still there). I often have an Irish coffee here in Paris with my good friend Ursula, whose a Dubliner ( we explain to dubious onlookers that we are suffering from Nostalgia Hibernica due to the rain in Paris and that some Irish company and an IC are the only known cure for NH a recurrent & debilitating malaise for expats and expaddies like ourselves and it works. You might be suffering from somesort of complex offshoot of NH which hits while you're still in the country) It beats sipping pimms and delicately nibbling at cucumber sandwiches on the lawn which is an English passtime as you point out,
keep warm & dry,
Mike
step through my window, Sandra! I think you need blue skies…
take it away, Frank!
hugs!
Mikey, gosh what memories you bring back. Irish Coffee.. I think one would make me throw up now but I used to love them!! ( I can take my Bushmills straight, however, hmmm there's an idea to while the bright winter away).
Lovely video thanks Nicole!
I'll do what a friend suggested, get out a lawn chair, stick my feet in a bucket of sand, switch on a big spotlight and put on my sunglasses…mmmm.
Actually I'm to the seaside tomorrow, and I can tell you this, I'm NOT bringing my swimsuit.
Love,
Sandra
I didn't even realize you lived in Ireland! My little sister and I have a plan to visit there as soon as she's old enough to be “on her own.” I hope the days have gotten sunnier, but there is peace that comes from rain - a quiet calming!