FEELING THE PRESSURE

I awoke this morning feeling somewhat sluggish ... which is not my usual.  Normally, once awake, I get up and get going for the day.  Not this morning. Not ill, I forced myself to attend to chores etc which soon gets the day moving in the right gear.

Now that it is lighter in the morning I always like to get rid of the various types of rubbish (packaging, bottles and paper)  which go into our various coloured recycling bins.  I noticed that the day was, not so much dark, as 'dull' and that there were no birds singing ... i.e. very quiet.  "Ah hah" sez I "there's a weather front coming in, a big Low Pressure (storm) coming. Literally, the calm before the storm. And after an hour, the trees started fluttering and leaves started blowing around.

I have got good at picking up these signs after years of being at sea and seeing the conditions change ... sure enough ... bad weather soon followed.

I looked on my iPhone and took a photo [the image above]. The image posted is a screenshot which, as I was showing Iain who did not know how to take a picture of something on his iPhone screen, I took by (1) holding down the ON/OFF button on the top right of the phone then (2) carefully, and lightly but firmly, tapping the HOME button - the round one at the middle bottom on the iPhone.  The order here is important; I can't make it work the other way around nor by pressing both at the same time as instructions say.

Anyhow.... at this point I made a phone call to Christina, my Swedish friend. She was feeling exactly the same way so I suggested that maybe it was something to do with the weather.  "Hold on a minute" she said. "Let me read the barometer."  She returned to the phone and in her astonished Swedish voice cried "Heavens! It says 'STORM' on the barometer!"

I wish I knew what the actual barometer reading was but it just goes to show that there is something in the Old Wives (or Old Sailors) 'feeling' for the weather!  Furthermore, chances are one is not getting a cold or whatever so, therefore, it is best just to get on with the day!

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The image above is from Wikipedia: a shelf cloud, associated with a heavy or severe thunderstorm, over Swedish island of Öland in the Baltic Sea in July 2005 taken by Arnold Paul.