A Year In Redwood

Visitors ask us all sorts of questions about the weather in Ireland, and about the ‘rain’ in particular.

When is the ‘rainy season’?

Should we bring an umbrella as well as a raincoat?

When it rains in Ireland is it all day, or just showers?

And each time I am asked I have to stop and think.  If you’re Irish I think you’ll know what I mean when I say…. we could be so rich if we could answer these questions!!!!

And, here are a couple of questions for the Irish people reading this…. do you have a raincoat? Do you use an umbrella?

I do have both, but I cannot remember the last time I used either.  Raincoats and umbrellas are generally kept for city/posh wear! Living here in North Tipperary, it is generally a jacket with a hood, or pull on a hat and destroy the hairstyle anyway :).

Rain is a coming

As for the ‘rainy season’ question….. well that does depend on how the gods are feeling, doesn’t it?  Here we are in November, it is raining a lot today, but I can’t remember when we last had rain.  So this is good.

We, Irish, love to talk about the weather.  No greeting is complete without a comment about the weather.

And there are the myriad of ways in which we can describe rain.

Torrential downpour – very heavy rain, that it’s probably best not to go out in… curl up with a book or adjourn to the fireside.

Soft Irish mist – rain is just hanging there.  This is not the prettiest of types of rain, it will soak you to the skin…. it just penetrates everything.

Spitting rain – run between the drops!

Rain, however, very seldom stops play!  We are used to it.  In fact a lot of the time we don’t even notice it.

And when you do stop to think about it …. rain is good!  Where would we be without our rain?  We wouldn’t have our 40 shades of green.  (On a side note… did you know that Johnny Cash wrote this? I did not!)

So our advice to tourists… bring layers, bring a jacket with a hood…. and let it rain, let it pour  🙂