I'm reading a book called Freeze Frame by Peter May. It's part of a series with the main character being Enzo McLeod, a half-Scottish, half-Italian forensic expert who lives in the south of France. The author has written other series as well, some set in China and others in the Hebrides. They're not bad books and I look out for them when I remember.
In this latest one I am reading, the Scottish weather is mentioned. We've all heard about how it rains all the time; it's a bit of a standing joke. I checked Google and it seems to have some validity. Google BOM suggests it rains on 175 days of the year in the Lowlands and 300 days a year in the Highlands. Not much fun! I found a website which claims that Scotland has 100 different words for rain, like the Eskimaux have 100 different words for snow.
A recognise a couple: drookit (meaning drenched), smirr (very fine rain), but I've never heard of aftak (a lull in a storm) or daggle (to fall in torrents).
I lived in Scotland for the first 7 years and 10 months of my life. I walked to school every day and when I was old enough, I played in the street, we went for holidays and walked to visit our grandparents at least once a week. And I have no memory of ever experiencing rain. I remember wearing a blue coat when it was snowing but never a raincoat. What does that mean? Has my memory blocked all the wet days out? Did I become so inured to it I didn't register that it was happening?
Or is Scotland really a tropical paradise and there is a world-wide conspiracy to blacken its appeal?
It's funny; I have very clear memories of Blantyre and of Burnbank and of Johnshaven on the East Coast where we went for a visit just before we left for Australia. And, nowhere in my memory is it raining.
No comments:
Post a Comment