Changing By The Second

Wild wind howled and piercing precipitation rattled the roof throughout the night and well into the morning.

Jackie photographed and I e-mailed this image of crooked hand from our 200 year old long case clock to Martin Fairhurst of Dials in Lymington who will repair it. Even with the bend the clock keeps perfect time and chimes seven minutes late according to the point of the digit, as if there were no crook in it.

After lunch I made a start on a month’s ironing. When the sun sneaked out I unplugged the iron and we sped after it. Since it had made the effort we would have been rude not to.

The field alongside South Sway Lane, once home to pony Gimlet and her foal,

was now occupied by a nomadic Mallard family.

A drain was overflowing, suggesting that the lane itself will be flooded soon. Last year it became impassable.

The rain had definitely not conceded the skies. Rainbows followed us around

The fast-flowing, rippling and bubbling Balmer Lawn stretch of Highland Water had overflowed its banks. Within seconds of my striding out to photograph it the clouds rolled in, rain hammered down, and my woollen jacket soon took on the scent of damp sheep.

On the signal of the click of my camera a reflective crow was instantly on the wing.

Just around the corner the sun emerged once more, cast long shadows, and burnished trees against a dark slate sky.

Lulled into a false sense of security I walked across a muddy field to photograph ponies sheltering among the trees. They knew that I would soon be walking through torrential bead curtains.

Houses and trees were silhouetted against the clouds’ bonfire smoke. The skies were changing by the second.

I heard gleeful laughter emanating from a parked people carrier whose occupants were impressed by the ponies. As I raised my camera in polite request

the mother of the boys cheerfully wound her window down and, with a smile, said “put your tongue back in”. This was, of course, the signal to stick it out further. Although rain still rolled down the vehicle it had stopped falling from the skies.

As I drafted this post the heavy rain clattered throughout against my window.

This evening we dined on oven fish and chips, green peas, cornichons, and pickled onions with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Coonawarra.

87 comments

  1. I love the light in the header photo and of course the rainbow. We have a photo of mallards swimming on our front lawn in the year of the big flood (whenever that was).

  2. Such a lovely post, full of beautiful photos. Your header photo is stunning, the rainbow is beautiful, and the crow on the flooded bank caught my eye. The boys were funny.
    Your clock is beautiful!
    We had rain most of yesterday and into this morning, and now we have gusty wind, but better than the snowstorm they’re getting in New England.

  3. I had to chuckle at the imagery of leaving the chore of ironing, to chase the sun and the days adventure. Well done living in the moment, and love the images of the family in the people carrier.

  4. Fascinating. The X on the clock having a faint oblique makes your clock look as though it has not one, but 2 crooked hands. There must be an interesting story behind this?

  5. Yesterday we had a morning of snow, today it was mild and dry.
    I am hoping that most of your clothes are non -iron otherwise it you might working on the ironing pile for some time yet!
    Love the images.

    1. 5 more shirts to do, Sue. Jackie did all the flat linen yesterday afternoon. She has more sense than me and doesn’t buy anything for herself that needs ironing. Thanks very much.

  6. I can’t get the photos from this post to load today, but I can just picture pretty little Gimlet and her foal in mind’s eye. I’ll try looking again later.

    1. Now the photos load! It took a few tries on refresh. Beautiful photos, Derrick and Jackie. A kaleidoscope of weather, dark skies, rainbows and sun. I always love the ponies. ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. You were wise to unplug the iron and chase after the sun. The rainbow confirmed it! I haven’t ironed in years, though David used to iron his shirts for special dress up occasions – not many of those lately. I love that slate sky and burnished treetops.

  8. Love your clock with the crooked hand, Derrick. I have my grandfather’s clock, very similar to yours, but it stopped the day my grandfather passed away and so far nobody was able to figure out the reason as it the mechanism seems to be in perfect order.
    Rainbows are always cheerful; they indicate hope for the world, and the world definitely needs it right now.

      1. No, I didn’t know; that was before I emerged from behind the iron curtain. Thank you so much for the link, Derrick; now I am not the only one with a clock that follows its owner’s demise.

  9. You only need to dial down the gladiator clock by seven minutes to make it chime at the accurate hour but it will be a sacrilege not to get the minute hand restored to its graceful shape. By the end of the post so convinced was I of the rain I checked my own sweatshirt for droplets of elements. Some of those photographs are a classic.

  10. Apart from the variety of watery photographs, I ‘bathed’ in delight at your beautiful descriptions – you are a master of alliteration, Derrick!

  11. I love your rainy day photos! How wonderful that the rainbow became a companion on your photographing travel adventures! So beautiful!
    We all love the ponies…and those sweet faces of those little boys are such a delight, too!
    How wonderful that your handsome well-seasoned clock still keeps time even with a crooked hand! And aren’t we glad when we are well-seasoned and have hurting, crooked, or bent (ETC) parts we can still be useful, too! ๐Ÿ˜‰
    (((HUGS))) ๐Ÿ™‚

  12. Both the rainy season photographs along with that of rainbow are excellently clicked. The descriptions for each photographs are wonderful.??

  13. beautiful header and rainbow shots! never seen a crooked clock hand, Derrick. your vintage clock must be special! as always, loved the gallery of photos for the day! thank you so much ๐Ÿ™‚ ๐Ÿ™‚

  14. O derrick – that clock is so cool – and they sure made stuff to last when craftsmen made these things and to pump them out factories

    and many times your posts have these beautiful literature snippets that are so wonderful – a little mini story in a way with layered feelings and actions — like this
    “When the sun sneaked out I unplugged the iron and we sped after it. Since it had made the effort we would have been rude not to.”
    oh just so much to that right there –
    and lovely post amigo

  15. Beautiful trees! And, yes, it would have been very rude to ignore the sun. As the old myths instruct us, mortals can get themselves in a lot of trouble by ignoring the gods.

  16. I so love the opening picture, Derrick. The trees in the wind. Can tell it was a strong one.
    Black & white pictures are beautiful!

      1. I have never developed my own color images too. It costs a fortune:) My black&white darkroom was set up in the pantry ๐Ÿ™‚

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