Hairy Celt

Heavy rain at 3C.

Well the badger's expelled us: emerges gasping and blinking from the squalid orifice into quite a nice afternoon, albeit rather chilly!

Trying to look on the bright side, the wind's dropped and it's only light rain so far this morning. Still as gloomy as a badger's rectum and lots colder....

Ks sake. I'm emigrating. Latest were photos sent by youngest HC from Capri. I nearly cried.

Apparently, we've shifted to SPRING. Thanks @Paul, can you make this a reality please, it's minging still!!

Akureyri, Iceland - still definitely winter there!

The Icelandic 'volcano' is little more than a medium-sized incinerator with no filters so probably little to no effect this far away. The weekend was passably good and got out on the bike and got remarkably muddy again too. This winter spring I think have been about par for temps but above averagely wet. Starting to get on folks' nerves a bit - local gardeners wanting to crack on - it is April now after all. Farmers must be approaching despair. I hope @Northern Strath and family are well. We had our little grand-daughter here for the weekend which was lovely. Now pottering around on her pins rather than hands and knees. We hope to see more of her again soon and I can't wait. I would like to say something about Israel but dare not.

We had a long and pretty heavy shower late afternoon that had a couple of rumbles in it, just about audible from here for those tuning in.

Oh how do I know that feeling. One podiatrist said to me last year, 'your genes haven't done you any favours...' Useless onanist.

Nice try! It's still hammering down. 3.5C. At least the wind's not as bad as forecast. edit - sleet now f f s Stove's on. Groovy, say the cat, I'll have my tea now too.

Heavy rain started at about 7, looks like an indoor day. Laptop and lots of coffee.

Northernlights Our garden is green and the sky is blue with barely any wind. Solar panels going for it. After Sunday's forecast, Ms HC was telling her colleagues yesterday that today was going to be a sleety hell.... Now 9C after an overnight min of 5C.

Norrance Ha. Game on, Mr MetO. Maybe.

Halfamilefromnowhere One thing is guaranteed and that's that we only get an aurora forecast if there's a blanket of cloud! Chilly this morning but benign compared to tomorrow morning... probably just about cold enough for some seasonal sleet.

Already? Still 5.5C here.

Tuesday's shaping up to be pretty dreadful for some!

Quinach Purple Saxifrage? As has been reported elsewhere (!!!) it's been a pretty weathery week with some persistently strong and gusty winds (more tree damage locally) and some heavy bleeping showers - some wintriness in them on Friday although nothing settled obvs here. I've dusted off the bike and had some rides out, sometimes getting unpleasantly chilled on the face and clarted in mud in places I should have known better to go in current conditions. The garden is doing very little yet and the only seeds sown so far are broad beans. I've repotted my juvenile Yellow Gentians (G. lutea) for the 1st time and it was a bit of a nightmare tbh, the narrow tubers are more brittle than I was expecting. However I think I wrecked only one or two. They're now in tall pots and will hopefully flower in the next few years...

Quinach Gosh I looked at the plant first and thought, fumitory. Woops.

You jinxed it! It was warm enough for a decent cycle ride today but the outlook for temps this far north is poor.

Yes, as above, got to 12C in the sunny spells. Been potting on yellow gentians this afternoon, fingers crossed I haven't killed them, the roots are so fragile. The garden is a sodden mess in general though.

Did someone say March weather is boring? We've had everything this week - including boring - from calm, warm and sunny to a proper blow, heavy showers and a tornado. Ok, I made that last bit up. Just waiting for a decent few drying days to get out in the garden soon, hopefully, although that's maybe a bit optimistic in March for here.

Yeah... unbeatable... I'm trying to find some enthusiasm for going out this afternoon. So far I've got as far as cleaning out the back of the huge messy cupboard and listening to some music!

Hmm well I think we've maybe fared a little better than the folk out east, maybe the black isle could be renamed the land of pink and grey just now with the colours is the sky slightly bookending the days. There have been one or two crackers (blue sky, no wind) and some that have failed (eg today with a fierce cold easterly and little sun at all) and overall still a very wintry feel. This was Glen Orrin today with slightly less snow than at the start of last week - perhaps the zone of uncertainty has gone up 100m or so, not much more. I've been out there most days recently and I'm still in full winter kit unless it's (rarely) both still and sunny. Those the days you learn to cherish, not to tear around blindly but pause and appreciate our place in the universe. Oh dear.... I heard the 1st Golden Plover today. However 1 GP maketh not a spring, or some such drivel. The wind is swirling in the chimney this evening.

Winter continues with a max of 4C and heavy sleety showers this morning. Now at 2C also and seems to be heading downwards still.

Another day in Glen Orrin that started with a clear blue sky and a sharp frost then clouded over mid afternoon, only to break a little as some showers drifted down from the corrie to the south I puzzled for a short while about whether the shortness of the rainbow was because the shower was snow higher up, but then thought it was actually because there only was a fairly shallow streak of sunlight coming down the glen. And I only saw it because I turned round to close a gate. So do rainbows only exist if someone sees it?