Stormy Weather

[scottycelt]

Boozing on the Sabbath ... typical Catholic, BBM!

[eighthobstruction]

I was sat in the heather this afternoon, mauve all around, my dogs bobbing up and down making clouds of pollen. Two swallows entered the arena slashing and twisting through the air; sometimes 2 or 3 feet from me, whipping on the strong heavy wind, turning their wings inside out to turn and return at calf height tacking up wind. Again up, liberated from their tussle with the wind, to slice; at what must have been at least 100 miles an hour, around the moor, around the moor , again and again....

I remember when KleinesC was on the old boards, I always used to post to him when the moors were mauve....

[scottycelt]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

[Anna]

Well, NYC may have escaped the worse but Connecticut is certainly suffering with flooding, 50% electricity out and trees coming down. NYC's not the centre of the Universe!

[Serial_Apologist]

Report for Newport Rhode Island at 2 pm their time (presumably, with the 6-hour gap): Very poor visibility, (usually meaning heavy rain on these charts) humidity 90%, average wind 29 mph, southerly, temperature 21 C (70 F)

[salymap]

I've had a very brief email from Greenwich, CT. "Ok but no power yet." Difficult with three youngsters though.

[amateur51]

I was sat in the heather this afternoon, mauve all around, my dogs bobbing up and down making clouds of pollen. Two swallows entered the arena slashing and twisting through the air; sometimes 2 or 3 feet from me, whipping on the strong heavy wind, turning their wings inside out to turn and return at calf height tacking up wind. Again up, liberated from their tussle with the wind, to slice; at what must have been at least 100 miles an hour, around the moor, around the moor , again and again....

I remember when KleinesC was on the old boards, I always used to post to him when the moors were mauve....

Thanks for this evocative post, eighth!

A few years ago I was at a very low ebb and a kind friend who lives in East Yorks bought me a rail ricket to travel from my home in London to hers. I only had one pair of shoes and the soles were parting company from the uppers, a nightmare in wet weather. I was broke and I was miserable.

One day my friend drove us over the moors to Whitby and they were, as you described, purple from miles away, something I'd never seen before. We had lunch at a famous fish & chippery, had a totter around Whitby, I was able to buy us an ice cream each & we drove home and boy were my spirits lifted, particularly by the sight of those purple moors again.

This year, my friend has been nursing an ex-who has taken nigh on a year to die from lung-, pancreatic- and spinal cancers. She has been a brick for him & I'm due to go up soon to butter baps, prepare roasted foods and read from the Bible in Church at the funeral.

I hope that the moors are purple again

[eighthobstruction]

I'm so lucky to live where I do [nowt posh]....the moors are nearly always rewarding....if you miss the mauve, soon they will be russet, cinnamon, tawny and fox red....a great play to study mortality


Tim O'Brien, Another Day Lyrics




This world is made with sweat and toil, pushing muscle and elbow oil
We can't lie too long in the shade, cause every day must be remade
Some days you fall some days you fly, but in the end we all must die
Our rotting flesh and broken bone will feed the ground that we call home

But a new sprout grows from a fallen tree, my sons will go on after me
So lift your heart and dry your eye, it's another day to live and die

I've run naked in the wild, seen the beauty of a newborn child
Like the alchemists of old, I've tried to spin my straw to gold
Most times a giver, sometimes a thief, so full of hope but prone to grief
Between freedom and despair, I know that truth is lying there
I've seen the truth, it's lying there

And a new sprout grows from a fallen tree, this world will go on after me
So lift your heart and dry your eye, it's another day to live and die

So go on now, don't you worry 'bout me, you've miles to go and a world to see
My life's been long and full and good, I've run this race the best I could
It's a short time here and long apart,
But the same song rings in both our hearts
So take my guitar when I'm gone, write your own rhymes, then pass it on
Just take your hit and then pass it on

Let a new sprout grow from a fallen tree, this song will go on after me
So lift your heart and dry your eye, it's another day to live and die
It's another day to live and die, just another day

[salymap]

It sounds lovely where you live Eighth.

[eighthobstruction]

Three things mainly keep me sane....they are all interconnected....my dogs, the moors, and colour....I live on the edge of the Industrial Dales and the Rural Dales, each have their own fantastic beauty, and are to the most extent deserted once you stray 100 yards from the normal byeways....I'm a lucky boy....

[BBMmk2]

A mixed bag today, well I would say 'sunny intervals' Hmmm, is their a difference between spells, intervals or periods?

[marthe]

Finally connected to internet again! We got power back about 1:30 EDT after 28 hours without. Irene could have been much worse than she was for which I am truly thankful. Today was sunny and cool. I spent the day cleaning up fallen tree branches which was the only damage we had. By the time Irene arrived in Newport, she had been downgraded to a Tropical Storm. Folks in northern New England had a much worse time with flooding, especially in Vermont where we're going in mid-September. Saly and Anna, I hope your families in Connecticut are well. I thank all of you for your good wishes...always a comfort. S-A, always keeping a weather-eye out for Newport! I know that there have been storms equally as fierce on your side of the Atlantic.

Eigthobstruction, I very much like your descrption of the Dales(and the poem as well.) I love that part of the world.

[salymap]

Very glad you are reasonably sorted marthe. My cousins in CT were okay yesterday but waiting for power to be restored.

I'm glad our so called Bank Holiday is over and hope to totter to the shops today. Good wishes, saly

[marthe]

Very glad you are reasonably sorted marthe. My cousins in CT were okay yesterday but waiting for power to be restored.

I'm glad our so called Bank Holiday is over and hope to totter to the shops today. Good wishes, saly

saly, I hope your cousins in CT have their power back. It's so frustrating to be without. Prolonged power outages always make me wonder how I would have coped in an earlier time. We've become so dependent on all our electronic gadgets, including internet. We've got the equivilant of a Bank Holiday this coming weekend with Labor Day on Monday 5th Sept. This marks the official end of the summer season here. The beaches close (one can still swim at them but at one's own risk...no lifeguards on duty), children go back to school, university classes start. Tourists still pour into Newport, though. Sept-Nov is cruise ship season. We get lots of these city-sized ships coming into the harbor, sometimes three a day. They disgorge huge crowds of visitors from all over. Most of these cruises start in NYC and end up in Halifax, N.S. with one-day stops in Newport, Boston, Portland (Maine).

I hope you had a good totter to the shops, saly. Are there good shops near you?

[Stillhomewardbound]

Marthe, this has me remembering my brief spell as a cruise entertainments office in 2003/2004 when I undertook just the one North Atlantic cruise which went something like Southampton-NewYork-Newport-Boston-Halifax-Quebec-St.John-Southampton.

Newport was very attractive and I treated myself to a large t-bone steak for lunch!

Our ship was the Oriana. By today's standards one of the lesser behemoths.