Sometimes it actually does rain in Scotland.

All of last week we had absolutely gorgeous weather, up in the 70's, bright blue skies, lots of sun, the kind of weather that makes it impossible to revise for exams. Instead the entire student population turned a brilliant lobster pink.

Last night we had a thunderstorm.

It was a bit odd, really. I know it doesn't storm all that much over here, because storms require instable conditions and the constancy of the weather patterns preclude that a bit. But yesterday saw some heavier rain than usual, paired with rumbling thunder for a few periods of about fifteen minutes each. As far as I can tell, there was no spectacular flashes of lightning anywhere, just some thunder high up in the atmosphere somewhere.

Of course the 70F weather is gone as well, the storm heralded in cooler, foggy weather.

At least it's easier to focus on physics?

Chug! Chug! Chug!

Chugging. It's not downing your beverage quickly. Well, that too. It's also short for "charity mugging". The people, usually attractive young kids fresh out of uni or college, who approach innocent passers-by, present a sad story about [homeless people, veterans, abused animals, so on] and then ask for a donation: they are chugging.

Turns out [many? most? some?] people get paid to chug.

Creche. Daycare centers. In commercial centres, it seems. I heard an advertisement on the radio today that a new shopping mall has a large creche. This weekend, a few parents were chugging outside the local swimming pool (located on my block) with signs saying "Save Our Creche".


For those of you keeping track at home, today in Edinburgh the sun rose at 05:38 AM and set at 8:45 PM. That's over 15 hours of sunlight! And it's only the end of April. No wonder I can't sleep in the mornings.

Compare, for DC: 6:15 AM sunrise, 7:58 PM sunset. 13.5 hours of sunlight.

The temperature was in the mid-60's, very sunny with a slight breeze. And at the beginning of exam time, so people studied outside in shorts and tanks.
That seems a little extreme to me.

turn back time!

I know that Daylight Savings started last night in the US but here Summertime (a name that makes it easier to remember when it 'begins' and when it 'ends'!) doesn't start until March 30 or so. So those of you on the east coast are now only four hours behind GMT.

Today I walked down to the Royal Botanic Gardens, which are on the other side of the city. Actually my derive (in January) took me almost to the entrance of the gardens and I had no idea!

It was really nice to wander about the grounds, even though not a lot was in bloom the daffodils and crocuses and flowering shrubbery were really nice. The greenhouses ('glasshouses') were wonderful to wander through, each house had a different climate. Not just in temperature, but in humidity! I had to take off my jacket in the rainforest room, but then froze in the temperate room. And the Arid Lands section was actually so dry I couldn't believe. Luckily it was not so windy out as to sniffle-ify my nose, so I was able to smell most things... I think my favorite part was probably the orchids.

Did you know that Scotland has carnivorous plants? Yeah! Mostly they're native to bogs.

wind

Do soda bottles come in 20oz size as well? I honestly can't remember. Anyway, 500 mL is about 17 oz, so I'm losing on that battle too.

I hope you all had a chance to see the lunar eclipse last night. Despite a string of clear nights earlier in the week, it was cloudy last night and we had no luck at all.

It's definitely coming on spring, though. Which is odd, that for such a temperate climate you (I) can tell season change and in mid-February. But it is noticably warmer and I daresay less of the winter-icy-biting wind that we had before. I've even been running outside on occasion! That's something I can only do when the wind is down, which is pretty rare.

Yay spring!