The rain in Scotland falls mainly ... well, gently and softly.

This weekend, for the first time since moving to Scotland almost a year ago, I got to wear wellies. Everyone (including the natives) thinks it rains all the time here, and, I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. (How many times do I have to tell you Americans that Louisville gets almost twice the annual rain that Edinburgh gets?)

What IS true, however, is that the sun has been hiding, and we've had more rainy days over the past few weeks than pretty much the entire time I've lived here. We've had so much rain that the little river by my house flooded and reeked havoc on quite a few homes in the neighborhood.

That part is sad, but I'm still shocked that it took less than two inches of rain to take a photo like this one. I mean, it didn't even occur to me and D during the light sprinkling (albeit incessant sprinkling) that we might use an umbrella. So to wake up to text messages from friends wondering if we okay ... well, that made us laugh. Until we walked down the street. We were lucky and escaped with just a need to wear wellies. But I do miss the sun.

I love summer. I even love the 100 degree, sweat-before-you-leave-the-house days in Kentucky, when the air is thick with humidity, and ice water is the greatest invention in the world. I love it because the winter cold is so horrible there. Back home, whenever July is getting to me, I remember February, eat a chilled watermelon, and switch from bourbon to gin.

Yesterday, I wore a sweater to meet a friend for coffee. On July 11. It's 55 degrees right now, which is pretty much the temperature it has been since we moved here in September. You folks daydreaming about jacket and boot weather on Pinterest? Move to Scotland. But today ... the sun is peeking through the clouds, and I'm going to get me some vitamin D and put my wellies away for another year. (Or until we move back to Louisville.)

4 comments

  1. I can't tell you how much I love telling people here that Dallas gets more annual rainfall than Manchester. It's my favorite response to all those who think it's so clever to ask what I think of "this British rain". They are consistently stunned.

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    1. So funny. So many people here are convinced they have it worse than anyone in the world ... the rain, the cold, etc ... everything is so mild though. I don't know how you'd ever pack to move to Dallas for a year. But packing to move here for a year is easy. I've pretty much worn a t-shirt, a sweater, and jeans since I moved. Sometimes I add a coat... sometimes I remove the sweater. Mild, mild, mild.

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    1. Stupid blogger ... i tried to delete the duplicate comment, and now it looks like I've censored you:)

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