The Weather

We as a nation talk about it more than any other. There is a reason for that, It is because we are so geographically positioned on the globe that we do experience it in all its ever changing moods.We as fishermen are More aware of it than most as it is never far away from our thoughts as we go about our working lives.For me, The number of visits to Hillend Loch,sometimes depends on what Heather the weather forecasts and broadcasts to the nation on tea - time tv. Although occasionally I completely ignore what she has to say and head up to my local loch no matter what as she doesn't always get it correct.
Which brings me to the weather at Hillend.On many occasions I have driven away from Airdrie in perfect conditions, but on arrival at Hillend, which is only four miles away, the weather can sometimes be completely different but that is the beauty of Hillend Loch . No matter the weather conditions there is always somewhere to fish comfortably away from the elements. If there is a strong wind coming in from the west , The Big Moss is an ideal location to fly fish from as the wind will be at your back. If the wind is an easterly the point of the woods is the location of choice to fish from. Likewise if the wind is southerly the south shore is best and vice versa if the wind is coming in from a northern direction. The boathouse bay is a good sheltered location too if the elements are raw as is the back of the woods with Low's Bay and the Mound depending on wind and rain direction.
The reason we get so much weather in this country so to speak is that we are the first dropping off place for moisture swept in by the winds from the Atlantic. That being a fact it is not surprising that our Scots language has a huge vocabulary of words for all different kinds of precipitation that make our weather so varied and interesting. At Hillend Loch the rain can smirr, teem, stot, come doon in stair rods,no take its time,It can rain auld wives and pipe staples as well as cats and dugs.There can be a plump, a plype,,, a scudder or a blatter, less dramatically sometimes the weather is just plowdery, with a spitter or a dreep or dribble.
All this just goes to prove that we at Hillend have as many words for the rain as the Eskimos have for sna!