weather talks

Tags

Dublin, Ireland, photo photography, rain, strangers, talk, weather

After more than 24 hours of rain, wet socks, frizzy hair, and damp clothes it’s great to see a little bit of blue poking out between the clouds. Especially since the last two nights have been long and sleepless as the tattoo of heavy rain beating against my window has kept me awake for most of the night.

But no matter how miserable the weather proves to be the thing I enjoy most is the amount of strangers who strike up conversations by stating this obvious fact. On both bus rides to and fro from work – I declined to walk as the weather was just too wet – my seat companion told me in no uncertain terms that we were having  ‘shocking weather’ while their umbrellas dripped puddles onto my already wet shoes. Knowing the rules of the game I, of course,  answered the only way one can: with a pinched smile, a nod, a sigh, and a ‘I know, isn’t awful!’

Our shared commiseration about something we cannot change opened up the floodgates (couldn’t resist the pun) to stories of a few strangers lives. I heard all about the disasters of the paper shopping bags Pennys uses ‘sure they just rip, now me shopping is drowned’  and the splashing cars, bikes and buses soaking ‘me legs’.

While I nodded along to the lamentations I remembered a statistic I read a good while ago. It it it said that Irish people, on average, talk about the weather at least twice a day and 25% of the population even go so far as to talk about the sun and rain four times daily.

I suppose this means that with the ever changing of weather in Ireland at least no one will ever be stumped for conversation and weather talks will stay an easy way to connect.

leaf puddle in my backyard

 

rainy days

Tags

community garden, Dublin, dublin summer, flowers, mud island, photography, photos, rain, weather

Dublin is back to it’s old tricks – grey clouds and rainy outburst have been dominating the last few days. As I sit at my desk and watch the big droplets cascade down from above I can’t help but wonder where the sun has gone off to.

And while of course I know I shouldn’t complain after 11 days of no rain and warm sunny weather – is more than we’ve seen in a long while – but I do miss my afternoons on my blue bench.

In a few days time the community garden (Mud Island)  I am part of will have it’s open day and we are all hoping for a sunny day – or at the very least one that isn’t wet. But right now it isn’t looking too good and there is still a lot of work to do before we can show the garden off to its full glory.

And while I am still not sure I’ll be able to lend a helping hand today I will be wandering down on Thursday night to dig in, literally. Right now I will tackle my to-do list – but at least I don’t need to water my plants!

in full bloom

long lasting pansies

cheerful pink

blue friends

tackling my TRP

Tags

books, rain, reading, sun, to read pile, TRP, weather, wet

Today is one of those wonderfully weird Irish days. The sun lures you out with smiles and shine to only disappear, giggling, behind a big, black cloud, which in turn empties out bucket loads of rain, turning sunny patches into puddles.

But after the good weather we have been having I won’t complain, especially since it is giving me  a great excuse to stay home and have a lazy day.  With my TRP (to read pile) ever growing and I think I may just curl up with a cup of tea, listen to the rain on my window and flee into the magical world of storytelling …

the perfect day to stay inside

Tags

christmas, photography, photos, rain, rainy days, shopping

I was woken up by the pitter-patter of big fat raindrops hitting against my bedroom window and it hasn’t stopped raining all day. That gives me the perfect excuse to just stay put and enjoy my own company for a while. After all I do have a whole stack of reading to do, a few corrections to tackle and lots of words still to write.

But somehow the lure of an antiques market a short drive away is pulling me out into the autumn windy wet that has taken over the world outside of my front door. So with my Christmas list in my pocket (it is only a few weeks away now) I think I will brave the rain and make  a dash for my car.

And who knows maybe this perfect day to stay inside will turn out to be the prefect day to find some treasures, and if not, at the very least I know I’ll have earned a perfect cup of tea when I get back.

thoughts on Tuesday

Tags

Albert Camus, autumn, new beginnings, quotes, rain, summer, summer sun, thoughts, warm summer days

One more week and it will be September and the summer  truly over, autumn at our doors- 21 days if the calendar is to believed. I have no idea where the time went and with with only a few sunny days between May and now I seem to be still waiting on the summer sun.

But since no one can stop time I suppose I will just have to cut my loses and get on with it. After all autumn can be so beautiful – the leaves turning gold, the winds playing with the leaves and the last of the warm summer days  saying their goodbyes.

And, like spring, autumn brings new beginnings: the semester restarts, my Masters begins, my birthday is approaching and another year is on the horizon. So maybe instead of mourning the lack of a summer I should be looking forward to all that is new to come.

However as the rain beats down on my windows it is hard not to long for a bit of warmth. But since weather is as unchangeable as time I think I will just decide to stay in and enjoy the pattering of the drops at it creates a soundtrack for my Tuesday thoughts.

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

Albert Camus

wet Sunday and warm socks

Tags

flowers, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, photography, photos, quote, rain, socks, sunday, wet

The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.

American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It has been raining since last night, big, heavy drops creating soggy puddles discouraging any desire to leave the house. And since the temperature has dropped to a slightly frostier level I felt the need o pull on some socks for the first time in months.

With mt feet all snugly warm, cups of hot tea and a book to keep me company I have decided that staying in may not be a bad thing at all – the sound of rain a wonderful  soundtrack for a Sunday afternoon.

leaf puddle in my backyard

pink drops

wet leaf

rainy days away

Tags

Connemara, driving, Ireland, Killarney, photography, photos, rain, rainy days travel, travel, W.B. Yeats

from my bedroom window in Renvyle House, Connemara

rain approaching

a boat

flying high

wet canoe

next stop New York

passing by the famous Kylemore Abbey

After a long drive up through Connemara on Saturday I spent the night in the historic (if somewhat rundown) Renvyle House. With a lake on one side and the Atlantic on the other the house, where W.B. Yeats often stayed, is surrounded by beautifully, wild nature. And even though the Irish weather wasn’t on it’s best behaviour the stormy wind and the frequent rain added to the atmosphere.

After a pub lunch and a soak in the tub I spent the evening, and most of the night, celebrating my good friends D. birthday, Lots of wine, good food, songs and laughter filled our tummies and the night. And while we were hoping to meet the Renvyle ghosts, the only happenings we had were the ones we made ourselves.

Sleep was the only thing I had too little of when I set out yesterday afternoon on my drive down to Killarney. Like so often when driving around Ireland I was astounded by the beauty, so even though I did take a wrong turn somewhere, which prolonged my journey unexpectedly, the long way down from wild Connemara to pretty Killarney was an enjoyable (somewhat tiring) trip.

Greeted by rainbows, I arrived in Killarney just in time to catch the tail-end of Ireland’s Biker Festival, and after a burger and drink in the bar it was time to head to bed.

Sadly this morning I was awakened to the tattoo of rain against the window, so the walk around the lake will have to wait. I just hope that the sun may come out for long enough for me to take a stroll around the grounds.

But if not, well I shall spend my day in lobby of this lovely lakeside hotel and write, a wet but beautiful view to inspire me every time I look up. And tomorrow is another day, one that will hopefully allow me some dry moments so I can at the very least take some photos of the beauty that surrounds me.

rain makes you more productive

Tags

Bad weather, experiments, Harvard University, Jooa Julia Lee, productivity, psychology, quotes, rain, rain makes you more productive, Rainmakers: Why Bad Weather Means Good Productivity, weather

Bad weather makes people more productive, that is what social scientist Jooa Julia Lee and her team from Harvard University recently found out.

They tested 653 people in four experiments and the results were quite clear: if it’s sunny people tend to be more distracted and let their minds wander resulting in less productivity, if it is raining workers are more concentrated and get more done.This also applies to students, who, as we all know, are more inclined to enjoy life instead of studying when the sun is high in the sky.

But what does it mean? Basically, if the sun is shining we start thinking about what we could be doing outdoors instead of working indoors, distracting our minds with possibilities and choice. And once confronted with choices our mind is less focused. This supports the ‘ choice overload hypothesis’ which says that the more choices we have the more distracted we are and the less able we are to complete tasks.

Of course this only applies to indoor work as outdoor work is influenced by the weather in completely different ways. But the study could be of interest to employers as one of the experiments within the study showed that it could benefit companies if they assigned work that required sustained attention, like clerical work, on rainy days and work that allows more flexible thinking on sunny days. Maybe even allow for more flexible working hours to maximize productivity.

However one thing stays unclear: does this apply to Dublin as it does to LA? If so it should mean that the Dubliners are much more productive that the Angelinos, and I am not sure the numbers support that. But it may explain why Ireland has managed to clamber out of debt much quicker than Greece.

Study by Jooa Julia Lee, Francesca Gino & Bradley R. Staats: Rainmakers: Why Bad Weather Means Good Productivity

The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

rain and shine

Tags

good weather, irish days, lists, photography, rain, sun, weather

Today is one of those wonderfully weird Irish days. The sun lures you out with smiles and shine to only disappear, giggling, behind a big, black cloud, which in turn empties out bucket loads of rain, turning sunny patches into puddles.

But after the good weather we have been having I won’t complain, especially since it is giving me  a great excuse to stay home and have a lazy day. However my lists of things to do (I have three going at the moment: to-do, to-pack and to-buy) keep catching my eye so I may have to cross off a few things to not end up with a squint or even crossed-eyed.

But before I do anything to strenuous I think I may just curl up with a cup of tea, listen to the rain on my window and flee into the magical world of storytelling …

a view outside

soggy bottom

Tags

apple turnover, baked cakes, blustery wind, clontarf castle, food, miscellaneous, rain, random, soggy bottom

The surprising TV hit of 2012 was The Great British Bake Off. In this program people of all walks of life entered a tent, baked cakes of all shapes and sizes and were judged by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, two of the UK’s leading bakers.

Now I may be a baker myself but I never watched the show. However yesterday evening as I was flicking through the channels I was mesmerized into watching The Great British Comic Relief Bake Off. As I scrutinised celebrities bake custards slices to various degrees of success, I also learnt that a “soggy bottom” (not fully backed and still wet) in pastry isn’t very good.

As I had breakfast this morning I watched the sun play with my prism in the window and make rainbows dance around the room. So I decide to take a walk up to Clontarf Castle and visit the Antique Fair there. But somehow it took me  a while to get ready and by the time I put on my boots the sun was playing hide and seek with clouds.

Not wanting to be deterred I gathered up my glass bottles and jars for the container, deciding to dispose of them on the way (they have been annoying me for a weeks), and left the house. However I reached the park just in time to see the sky go grey, the GAA and Football players flee the pitch and cold sleety rain bucket down from the heavens.

I was left with the decision to press on or turn back, after all I wasn’t even half way to the glass container. Still not wanting to give in I made my way through the park, the rain belting down on me from behind. By the time I reached the glass container I was soaked through all the way down to my underwear, my dress was wringabley wet. Bravely I disposed of my jam jars and wine bottles, the rain and blustery wind chilling me to the bone.

Feeling miserable  and not wanting to prolong my wet state much longer I opted out of the Antiques Fair and turned around to go home. Half way through the park I decided to take a quick detour to the shops, after all if I wasn’t going to treat myself to a cappuccino and a slice of cake in the castle, I could buy myself a piece of cake and enjoy eating it in warm dry clothes at home.

So as I stood in front of the display of tarts, cakes and cookies I felt the cold wet from my dress and knickers creep up my back and realised a soggy bottom in cake may not be very good, but on a person it is absolutely horrible.

An apple turnover that I will enjoy without a soggy bottom