Of rain and refugees
The rain continues. Rain and chilly temperatures of 11/12/13 degrees. The shot above was taken at 6.30 in the evening.
Meantime, outdoor events go ahead for the most part. Scotland's major outdoor rock festival, T in the Park, took place at the weekend. Mud has come to be a standard part of UK festivals, but even so the conditions this year must have been miserable - or am I just old? It's a peculiar trait of the UK psyche that camping is equated with enjoyment. There's a huge range of camping styles available at T in the Park, from ordinary tents through to luxury yurts and pods. But add constant rain and even your yurt will suffer.
At Edinburgh's Waverley station on Monday morning the refugees from T in the Park were everywhere. It was one of those times when I felt I could only take surreptitious photos, so the quality of the shots is a bit grainy through being taken at a distance. But you'll get the idea of general mud.
Below - complete, muddy festival exhaustion.
Two girls in standard festival uniform of micro shorts and wellies. And mud.
I know it would be miserable to spend so much time in the mud but, as a desert dweller, I'd love to see a little. I was examining a [very] temporary rain puddle left by one of our monsoon storms and laughed to see bare human footprints in it. Rain is such a treat here--it doesn't seem fair that some parts of the world get way too much!
ReplyDeleteI am trying very hard to view the rain as a treat, because the extreme temperatures in North America are in the news here. Feeling very self-consciously Pollyanna-ish.
DeleteEven when I was a whippersnapper, I hated camping in the rain and muck. Now that I'm older, you couldn't pay me to trek about in soggy pneumonia-inducing weather. My husband and I built a yurt several years ago, and I can absolutely concur with you - camping, even in a yurt, in the rain, is a trial. It is lovely to lay in bed at night and listen to the tippity tap of light raindrops, but when it's a soaker, the canvases get all heavy and gross, and they never dry out properly before it's time to pack it all up and take it home. Just - GROSS.
ReplyDeleteA mouldy yurt seems a bit too much to contend with. I guess that in Outer Mongolia they would get a nice brisk breeze to dry out the yurt, and didn't have to take it home and store it in the garage.
DeleteIt has been raining in Houston for about a week now Amber says. I have only been here since Tuesday but it has been steadily raining and rain is in the forecast everyday through the weekend. We were sitting up in the NICU yesterday and Amber was recalling her Scotland days. Gray rainy weather = Scotland memories.
ReplyDeleteI, myself, LOVE rainy days....and nights....and chilly temps! I love all sorts of weather but my LEAST favorite is HOT! So I am grateful for the rain today.....here in Texas.
Linda, Amber would certainly have had her fill of grey days in Aberdeen! Glad you're getting some rain at last.
DeleteI have to admit that despite our wildfires I'll take our climate with its 300+ days of sunshine every year (I've never lived in Scotland but spent 10 years in Holland and while I loved the country and people I don't miss the weather). Camping is fun here - we may get an afternoon thunderstorm but I literally don't remember the last time it rained for more than a couple of hours. I love what you did with that first photo.
ReplyDeleteThunderstorms are quite rare in Scotland, come to think of it. We did have a bit of a rumble of thunder last week when we had torrential rain, but that was unusual. Camping as fun is not in my vocabulary, but I can see that it might be bearable at least if the conditions are dry!
DeleteWith all that rain, no wonder the grass had grown too long to be walked on by Nikki Minaj!
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, the Scots endure and carry on....
The lawnmower request is a source of vast hilarity in Scotland...
DeleteI'm so sorry to hear about all the rain and cool temperatures. I can't even imagine trekking through mud like that! It can't be fun. HA I'm not a camper even in the best of weather...too many bugs and humidity for me. I'm with Marcheline, I'd rather lay in a bed and listen to the rain!
ReplyDeleteThe bug that is the scourge of Scottish camping is the midge - tiny but deadly. On our last family camping trip on the West Coast (in lovely sunny weather, so I didn't have the rain to moan about) we were plagued by midges. We sort of solved the problem by gathering dry seaweed from the shore, putting it on our campfire, and SITTING IN THE SMOKE. Kept the midges at bay, but we were kippered. Scottish camping...
DeleteGreat photos, we had a respite today though as it was sunny in Glasgow for a change.
ReplyDeleteDon't tell me that! The rain has followed us north, and looking at the forecast tonight I see that it will follow us back to Edinburgh next week.
DeleteOh, how I miss the days of a tent in the pouring rain, made easier by copious amounts of good whisky of course. Is that Princes Street in the murk?
ReplyDeleteYou're obviously a better Scot than I am, Gary. Difficult to tell which street it is, isn't it? It's Leith Walk, heading towards the sea.
DeleteWet and gray, but certainly fun.
ReplyDeleteFunny pictures, Marit.
It was fun watching all the muddy festival people!
DeleteNot my idea of fun!
ReplyDeleteNor mine, but I could see that they all had an air of weary triumph about them.
DeleteI must be getting old too because that does not sound like fun!! : )
ReplyDeleteLots of places here in the states could certainly use some of your rain!!
I know, I wish we could send some to you.
DeleteOh, yuck! I would have given up and stayed home! I hope your weather improves soon.
ReplyDeleteNo sign of any improvement - the forecast is rain for next week as well.
DeleteIt's so hot and muggy in Los Angeles today that we had a few raindrops--literally only 12 or so. But I don't think that has anything to do with what you're talking about. Like clairz, I would like to see some real rain. We get it so rarely. It would be nice if the planet had a fair distribution plan.
ReplyDeleteA fair distribution plan is an excellent suggestion. I do remember rain one time I was in LA. It was warm...
Deleteyes, definitely a lot of mud. so glad the mud didn't keep everyone from having a great time. wish we could share some of that rain though. we still need lots of rain to help the dry areas. hope all is well. have a great night~
ReplyDeletePerhaps you'll get a wet autumn and we'll get a dry one - tho of course the crops will need rain way before then.
DeleteI am also too old, as I think this sounds like no fun! Quite the opposite weather for me as we have had a bit of a drought with very high temps.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure it would ever have seemed like fun to me. I just don't think I have the camping gene.
DeleteAnd they call that having a good time. I'm definitely getting old. Thank you for leaving the link to your daughter's performance, I enjoyed watching it very much. She has a lovely voice, you must be a very proud mum.
ReplyDeleteI can't sing a note myself - can you? How did we end up with daughters who can sing?
DeleteThat first picture is SO depressing. What happened to summer??! The rain seems to be a particularly wet kind of rain too, a drizzling, relentless, grey, seeping-through-the-seams-in-your-coat sort of rain. Eech. Having said that, I took younger son to the first day of the Game Fair at Scone (the only day as it turned out, as the rest of the weekend was cancelled due to mud) and we had a great time despite being soaked through several layers of clothing. By the end of the day the mud was up to the wee one's knees and we were sliding about all over the place. The bouncy castle was more like a bouncy swimming pool. But I'd brought spare dry clothes for him, and we really thought the mud was a bit of a lark. I can imagine enjoying the soggy T in the Park if I were young free and single!
ReplyDeleteWe saw signs about the cancellation of the game fair on our way down the A9 the other weekend. Such a pity for all the exhibitors. Some of the rest of the summer shows aren't looking too promising. At least you were dressed for the weather.
Delete(Apologies if this is a duplicate comment - having trouble posting again!) Oh that does not look like fun to me! We actually drove past T in the Park last weekend through driving rain and some flooding on the road, and were wondering if it had been cancelled or not, but saw lots of campervans in a field so obviously not.
ReplyDeleteOur family has tried camping but we have ended up cross, sleep-deprived, cold and with aching backs. I think we're just a bit too old - which doesn't explain our daughter's aversion to it. Our son, on the other hand, used to love camping (with people other than ourselves - maybe it's just us?!).
Maybe this year's T in the Park will be remembered as their Woodstock. As for me, I'd prefer to stay at home and watch an old movie rather than stand in rain for any reason.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh. Your pictures said it all. It IS too bad that your big festival had to be accompanied by such weather. Tell me, what is your most beautiful month of the year? The one that is WARM and delightful. I guess I don't know when you have real summer weather.
ReplyDeleteI guess it wouldn't be so bad moving about in the mud when you are really dressed for it. Nice and slippery slidey. The kids probably love it. I'm afraid though that I am a bit too old for that.......I would probably slip right down into a fall and than have a really good mud bath. I've heard they are great for the body though so maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
Oh my goodness, I must have missed the link to your daughters performance. I must go back right now to see it. I don't check my blogging friends posts every day, maybe once or twice a week, so I know I missed it. I'm glad you posted it though because as I said before, I love hearing about your daughter AND son.
Off off right now to track that link down.
Summer brings an avalanche of rock festivals. In Spain this weekend are celebrating two, in Benicassim (FIB) and Bilbao (BBK Live), but here the sun shines brightly every day. As a curiosity, those microshorts that are so popular among girls this summer I think are known as Daisy Duke, the name of a character in a TV series of the late 70's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Duke
ReplyDeleteYour top photo looks like a grey version of an Impressionist painting. It is too much rain I am sure.
ReplyDeleteHi Linda!
ReplyDeleteHello from the other Linda! Thanks for visiting my blog! Nice to see I have readers in Scotland. Looks like you're getting the weather we had most of June. The saying here in Portland, OR is that summer doesn't start until the 4th of July. And this year it was true. Hope the rain lets up and things dry up for you soon.
Would you believe the people around here are ecstatic that we got some rain today? And we want ,ore. :))
ReplyDeletewe have a lot of that rain here too although today was wonderful, last day of my Belgian coast vacation
ReplyDeleteyour first picture is wonderful, I love it
My No1 son (my No 2 son as well as it happens) was at T in the park and appears in a picture worryingly taken by the Daily Records photographer. At least if it does make it's way to the paper there's not much hope of him being recognised. I'm not sure how he got home (he's old enough to worry about that himself) but I hope he got well hosed down before hand.
ReplyDelete