Saturday 9 July 2011

Summertime

Yesterday Edinburgh had the most amazing thunderstorm that lasted a total of two hours, the storm spent that time circling the city and throwing thunder, lightning, torrential rain and hailstones at us.

Today we foolishly thought the rain might hold off for the Canal Festival. We made our way over to the canal and enjoyed looking at the stalls and the animals that Gorgie City Farm had brought along for the petting zoo (though Driftwood, the rabbit who we have sponsored for the last few years, wasn't there).

We then wandered along the canal and enjoyed watching the swallows swooping low over the canal and lots of swifts flying around higher up. There was a family of swans, with the cygnets definitely at the ugly duckling stage of development, thgh the adults looked magnificent.





I managed to capture some nice abstract type reflections in the water.





It really felt like summer and we got quite far along the path. Until it started raining. Torrentially. So we turned back. But we took some photos of the rain too, just to prove how torrential it was.






so that's summer in Scotland!

for Weekend Reflections and Nature Notes

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17 comments:

The Weaver of Grass said...

I think it is pretty much the same everywhere Juliet - we keep getting torrential downpours then sunshine.

Dimple said...

Love your abstract reflections, especially the one with the fence.
I have taken rain photos like yours this year, also!

Dartford Warbler said...

I like the zebra striped reflection too. Interesting photos.

I expect the rain has caused millions of flying insects to hatch, so that will be good for swallows and swifts.

Just a few spots of rain here today, and a mild south westerly. The sun has come out this evening.

Titus said...

Wow! I love thunderstorms, it never came our way afterwards.
Mind, we're planning to car boot tomorrow, so it will probably arrive then..
Lovely reflection shot.

Anonymous said...

Lovely photos (and the cygnets are still adorable).

Michelle May-The Raspberry Rabbits said...

Beautiful. We need rain here so bad. It's been terribly dry where I live, while other areas are flooding!
I love the smell of summer rain as it moves across the earth. I love how the wind blows just before it starts and how the air becomes still. Ahhh...I would love to see and smell the rain.
xx, shell

bunnits said...

That sounds like the torrential downpour we had here yesterday afternoon. There was some brief flash flooding that was, thankfully, gone almost as quickly as it had happened. In the meantime, I had to try to get our two pitifully wet dogs in and got drenched in the process, ending up wetter than the dogs

Draffin Bears said...

Hi Juliet,

Sounds like our weather on Friday night - we had the most spectacular lightening and deafening thunder.
Woke us up and our Son said that he thought the end of the world was coming. Seems to be strange weather patterns everywhere.
Your photos are lovely.

Happy weekend
Hugs
Carolyn

KaHolly said...

We've had a lot of thunderstorms, too, not common for our area until later in the season. Your photos are great, esp. the water shots. ~karen

Deb G said...

That is some serious rain! There has been a few showers here lately, but nothing serious. We usually get very little rain in July and August.

Geraldine said...

These are beautiful shots. I love the swan one most of all.

I'm a rain lover so this was even better!

Anonymous said...

The lightning yesterday was amazing. And shortly after the storm passed over the sky was clear blue again. It was extraordinary. I had to go out into the city in the evening because I felt too full of energy to stay at home. I like storms :)

NatureFootstep said...

great sumemr day. With all you could ask for. :)

James said...

Beautiful photos! Sort of like visual poetry.

Sandy's witterings said...

No sign of bad weather out here at sea but I did notice in the papers that arrived that a couple of streets in Morningside were badly flooded due to the thuderstorms.

agreenearth said...

Beautiful images, reminds me of summers in Dunedin New Zealand.

Rambling Woods said...

All that rain makes your countryside so lush and green...Michelle