As the rain steadily falls and the room feels gloomy, I know it is time to turn the fairy lights on and fill the kettle. I am influenced by light levels and although I don't suffer SAD as painfully as others do, I do feel it and it weighs heavily on me. I find that walking or gardening help however I have had enough of being out in the rain and have chosen to drop my plans for a yomp up and out of the valley and am turning inward.
So, once I've finished tapping away at the laptop, I shall get my SAD light, my water colours and lose myself in colour and mugs of tea. I have just glanced up and the cat is staring at me with such a frown. She is visibly accusing me of either causing the driech wet weather or my lack of ability to fix it. My dear cat, if I could, I would.
All this sounds rather depressing and it's not meant to be. It is what it is (dreadful phrase but it fits here).
Moments later, the cat has just returned from an attempted foray into the garden. She is drenched, her coat sparkling with raindrops as she leaves foot prints across the floor. I suspect that she will now situate herself behind the wood burner and steam herself gently dry for the rest of the day.
And, just for a moment's entertainment I found this ....
104 words for rain here in the UK
- Ache and pain (Cockney rhyming slang)
- Bange (East Anglia), a sort of dampness in the air, w/ light rain 🚿
- Bleeter (Scottish) 💧 ⏳
- Bluffart (Scottish) ❄️ ⏳ 😲
- Blunk (Shropshire) 💧 ⏳
- Cloudburst 💧⚡😲
- Cow quaker 💧
- Dag of rain (Scottish) 🚿 ⏳
- Deluge 💧
- Dibble (Shropshire) Slow rain
- Dimpsey (West country) 🚿
- Downpour 💧
- Dreich (miserable weather, Scottish)
- Drencher 💧
- Dringey (Norflk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire)🚿
- Drisk (Cornwall) 🚿
- Driving rain 💨
- Drizzle 🚿
- Duke of Spain (Cockney rhyming slang)
- Flist (Scottish) 🚿
- Flurry ⏳
- Fox’s wedding (The West Country) 😲
- Haar (Cornish, Scotlish, N. English), drizzle from the sea 🚿
- Harle (Lincolnshire), drizzle from the sea 🚿
- Haster (England), a violent storm⚡
- Haud (Scottish) 😲
- Hemple (West Country) 🚿
- Hig (England)⚡ ⏳
- Hurley Burley (England) 💧⚡
- It’s beating down 💧
- It’s chucking it down 💧
- It’s coming down in buckets/bucketloads 💧
- It’s coming down in sheets 💧
- It’s coming down it torrents 💧
- It’s drumming down, heavy rain heard through a roof 💧
- It’s getting biblical out there 💧⚡
- It’s hammering (it) down 💧
- It’s henting (Cornwall) 💧
- It’s hossin (Cumbrian) 💧
- It’s hoyin it doon (N. E. England) 💧
- It’s lashing (it) down 💧
- It’s lattin (Shropeshire), Enough rain to make outdoor work difficult
- It’s letty (Somerset), Enough rain to make outdoor work difficult
- It’s luttering down 💧
- It’s maumy (N. English/Scottish) 🚿
- It’s pattering 🚿
- It’s peeing (it) down 💧
- It’s pelting (it) down 💧
- It’s pissing (it) down 💧
- It’s plothering down (Midlands and N. England) large droplets with no wind 💧
- It’s pouring/pouring down 💧
- It’s raining cats and dogs 💧
- It’s raining chair legs, painfully heavy rain 💧
- It’s raining like a cow reliving itself 💧
- It’s raining sideways 💨
- It’s raining stair rods, painfully heavy rain 💧
- It’s raining upwards, rain so heavy that it bounces 💧
- It’s siling/syling down (N. England) 💧
- It’s spitting 🚿
- It’s spluttering 🚿
- It’s sprinkling 🚿
- It’s stottin (N. England and Scotland) heavy rain that bounces 💧
- It’s teeming from the heavens (N. Irish) 💧
- It’s thrashing (it) down 💧
- It’s throwing it down 💧
- It’s tipping (it) down 💧
- It’s tippling (it) down 💧
- It’s yukken it doon (Cumbrian) 💧
- It’s trickling 🚿
- Kelsher, a heavy shower 💧
- Liquid sunshine, sudden rain on a sunny day 😲
- Misla (Irish Traveller)
- Mizzle (N.Engis), misty drizzle 🚿
- Mochy weather (Scotish, N. Irish) 🚿
- Monsoon, heavy summer rain 💧
- Mothery (Linconshire) 🚿
- Nice weather for ducks!
- Onslaught 💧
- Peeggirin (Scottish) a stormy shower 💧
- Plash (Northumbrian) 😲
- Pleasure and pain (Cockney rhyming slang)
- Plum shower (Scottish) 💧
- Posh (Shropshire) 💧
- Precipitation
- Rain
- Raining forks’tiyunsdown’ards (Lincolnshire) like it’s raining pitchforks 💧
- Scotch mist 🚿
- Sea fret (N. English) mizzle from the sea 🚿
- Shower ⏳
- Skew (Cornwall) ⏳
- Skite (Scottish) 🚿 ⏳
- Sleet ❄️
- Smirr (Scottish) 🚿
- Smizzle (Scottish) 🚿
- Soaker 💧
- Soft weather (N. Irish) 🚿
- Squall 🚿
- Steaking 🚿
- The heavens have opened 😲
- The smoky smirr o rain (Scotland) 🚿
- The Wet
- Thunderstorm ⚡
- Torrent/Torrential 💧
- Yillen (Scottish) 🚿 💨
Some words I haven’t heard here but most I have. Love the geographic reference for the origin of the word/phrase. My ancestors brought the words with them to the New World.
ReplyDeleteYes, quite a few I knew too, quite a few must be related to localised dialect. We, as a family, have different words (not on the list) as I grew up in Africa where indigenous languages play a huge part in the evolvement of words :) I find it fascinating how dialects/words/languages develop and change
DeleteIsn't language fascinating
ReplyDeleteIt is! In a parallel life, I would loved to delve into linguistics 😁
DeleteI absolutely love the picture of your lovely puss cat gazing at the fire!
ReplyDeleteI love how varied our regional tongues are. We have an ancient Black Country/Brummie saying for when rain is imminent....Its black over Bill's Mother's...meaning that the sky looks very dark over Stratford Upon Avon.
Frost with snow forecast for this morning, I need a holiday! xxx
At this time of year, almost pressed to the woodburner is Pan's favourite spot - and I love 'its black over Bill's Mother's' - absolutely brilliant!
DeleteWhat a wonderful list! I knew about 30 of them; my favourite is liquid sunshine. I too continue to surround myself with colour or go to Empress Mills and buy more colourful fleece off-cuts and fabrics! I wish there was room behind your wood burner so I could join the cat.... x
ReplyDeleteAnother Empres Mills victim 🤭 They are responsible for far more 'stash enhancement' than is reasonable !
DeleteIn a gentle sort of way - you both remind me of the other and always have done. 🧡 and Empress Mill is just another link ☺️
DeleteNote sure which SAD light you have, but a couple of summers ago I managed to snaffle a genuine Lumie light (10,000 lux) stupidly cheap Amazon. It seems the price for these things halves at the time of year when no-one thinks they need them.
ReplyDeleteSititng on my desk, it accompanies coffee for the first hour every day at this time of year and I think makes a huge difference. xx
I have regular lamps and side lights but with sunlight bulbs, which make a difference to me too. I think without them I would just dissolve in the mire!
Delete