Rain, rain & rain

It has been raining for over 24 hours. Steady constant rain keeps up a rhythmic pattering on the windows. Hard tracks and paths are ribbons of water, soft ones muddy quagmires. Venturing out I wore waterproof socks with my sandals and put my camera in a waterproof housing through which I could take photographs. Wearing a thin waterproof jacket over a long sleeved base layer I was just warm enough while walking but soon felt chilly when stopping to take photographs, watch the swirling water in the burns or look at the slimy, rotting fungi in the damp woods. Back home the outdoor thermometer reached a high of only 10ºC. Dense dark clouds hung low on the hills. I had lights on in the house all day. The woods smelt fresh and sharp in the wetness though and the air felt clean and pure. Walking tracks through field and forest was quite exhilarating. I would not like to have been high in the hills however.

This was one of the wettest days of a wet summer. July was the wettest month in the records of Strathspey Weather, which date back to 2001. August was the second wettest month this year and September has had over half August’s rainfall in the first three days. There are reports of flooding from the Borders to Inverness. The East Coast rail line and the A1 trunk road were both closed due to floods and many roads are reported just passable with care. There are 21 flood watches in force across Scotland and five flood warnings, including local rivers the Spey and the Findhorn. Living at 1,000 feet near the top of a hill I am not concerned about floods affecting my house but I know many people will spend the night either dealing with floods or worrying about them occurring, especially as the forecast is for heavy rain overnight and well into tomorrow.

Photo info: Strathspey in the rain. Canon EOS 450D, Canon EF-S 18-55@53mm, 1/60 @ f5.6, ISO 100, Aquapac waterproof SLR case, raw file converted to JPEG in Lightroom 2.4.