Rainy days and Mondays

23 and 24 August 2015

The glorious weather when I was at work on Staurday did an annoying about turn, as English summer weather is wont to do, and rather put paid to my Sunday walking plans. Commando went out in it for his eighteen mile marathon training run while I stayed inside and did the housework I’d normally do on Monday, hoping it would be better then and I’d be able to fit my walk in. When he came home, soaked to the skin, he said his ankle hurt, which is not good news. Thankfully some rest and ice seemed to ease things and we even went out to get the weekly shop done later in the day. By this time the clouds had emptied everything they had on us and the sun actually came out for a while but it was too late to go walking by then.

All my Sunday housework and shopping efforts seemed to have been in vain when I woke to find it raining again on Monday morning. For a while I harboured a vain hope things would clear up but it just kept on raining. Sitting around at home wasn’t all that appealing so I thought I’d walk to town, take a wander around the parks, maybe do the two bridge challenge and walk back over the Itchen Bridge, weather permitting. If I was lucky the rain would stop and, if not, there were plenty of places to seek shelter and coffee.

By the time I’d wrapped up in my waterproof coat and gathered my walking gear the weather had got worse. In fact it was raining so hard I decided to get the bus. The cars were throwing up a tremendous spray as they sped down the hill and I was thankful for the bus shelter. Maybe it would clear up by the time I got to town. If not there was always shopping and coffee. The bus arrived and, if anything, the rain seemed to be getting harder. At the beginning of the bridge the bus driver slowed to go through a huge puddle but still the wash covered the pavement. It didn’t look like I’d be walking back that way unless I felt like an impromptu shower.

My first port of call in town was Costa, a quick dash from the bus stop holding the hood of my coat to stop the wind catching it. While I drank my latte I had my fingers crossed the rain outside was stopping, or at least getting lighter. To give the finger crossing a chance to work properly, I sipped slowly and lingered in the dry as long as I could. Sadly, crossed fingers don’t seem to work on the weather. When I went back outside it was as bad as ever.

In the short walk from Costa to the Bargate my trousers got soaked and the rain dripped down from my hood like a mini waterfall. My glasses were already so wet I couldn’t see anything and I took them off and put them in my pocket. The flagstones were awash, making me wish I’d worn my boots rather than shoes which were rapidly filling with water. As I walked through the archway and man coming the other way in shorts and flip flops with a huge umbrella slipped and nearly fell. All thought of doing a complete circuit of the parks evaporated and I ducked into WestQuay where I spent an hour wandering in and out of shops.

When I came back out, having looked for new boots but found none, sprayed myself with a variety of perfume testers, tried some new hand cream that smelled horrible and looked at lots of clothes in the sales that I didn’t like or wouldn’t fit me, it was still raining. Admittedly it wasn’t raining quite as hard as it was before but it was still way too wet for much walking through the parks. In the end I decided I’d walk through the enchanted park and then to the bus stop and go home.

Rainy weather is really not on my list of favourite things but I have to admit it does make the flowers look lovely.  The lilies are out right now and, on Monday, they were sparkling in the rain. Unable to decided whether I liked the pink spotty ones or the creamy white ones best I took way too many pictures while the trees and shrubs dripped all over me and the rain pitter pattered on my hood.

 

Then there were the hydrangeas, washed free of the dust and dirt of the city and looking fresh and bright in the rain. Even the last of the magnolia flowers, petals slightly tatty and torn, looked better covered with sparkling globes of water. If only it didn’t have to be quite so wet!

Even in the rain there were a few bees bumbling about. The eucryphia flowers seemed to be attracting most of them, perhaps because they could shelter under the downturned flowers and cling onto the pink tipped stamens. Who’d have thought the pretty white flowers would make such good bee umbrellas?

The echinaceas are past their best now, the colours faded by the few days of sun we have had. A couple of days of rain has given them a new lease of life though and I stopped again for a few photos. Some people struggling along the path with an umbrella the wind was trying to blow inside out looked at me a bit oddly as I crouched there but I’m getting quite used to odd looks.

Everything looked fresh and green as I strolled along the winding path towards the road and the smell of damp earth mixed with flowers was far better than any of the perfumes I’d tried. As summer days go it really wasn’t the best and I’d rather have had sun and a proper walk but I guess, if you have to wander around in the rain, the parks are the place to do it.