THROUGH THE MIZZLE

   Several four letter words come to mind today ... mist, rain, damp, grey, dark, dank.

Yes folks I've got repetitive word syndrome and the sunshine cure that I'm waiting for isn't forecast for several more days. The farmers too, are not getting much of a weather window for working outdoors at the moment, even as I write it's raining heavily again. The mountain was hushed and slushy this morning and these sheep pens looked eerily empty. Even the crows were low, slow and silent, as if weighed down with wetness.

  Back here in the dry-warm, having had a look at the BBC Weather pages to see when we are due to have the cumulus curtains next lifted to give us a sunnier stage to play on, I had a look at the world wide weather news. I really shouldn't be moaning because there are many places across the planet that are suffering far worse off conditions than we are! 
  Whilst looking at their "Weather News" section, I found a fascinating article, with a short video, "How hummingbirds fly when soggy." another related one, "Hummingbirds faster than jets." The statistics given about this tiny, bright bird are really quite astonishing. Compared to that, YU55, a giant asteroid, the size of an aircraft carrier went whizzing past the earth at about 30.000 mph last night. It all makes one feel rather slow and ponderous really, but as usual, I find something when trogging the dog that brightens up the day, even in the smallest of ways, like this lovely little, water-wet, bejewelled thistle

And as for the sheep ...  I think this feller had his way whilst the sun shone some days ago

Looking ahead to the spring, there will be some fine looking young lambs leaping about.