Upon being invited to go out and play in the garden this morning, this semi-detached member of the Spurtle team replied simply ‘Bleugh’.
When asked for clarification, he replied ‘Bleuuuch’. With emphasis.
Now, whether these were descriptions of the meteorological conditions, or insulting observations about the intelligence of a human companion who could for one moment think a cat might wish to go out and frolic in them, was not obvious.
The long, level, 'Go on, if you think you're hard enough' death-stare was a great deal clearer, and quickly banished any thought of moving him.
Fortunately, we two-legged Broughtonians have many descriptive terms at our disposal for the various gradations of today's horrid weather. A short selection appears below, drawn from the SNDA’s Scots Thesaurus.*
blashy—gusting
bleatery—cold, raw, showery
drumlie—cloudy, gloomy
heavy-heartit—lowering
pish-oot—heavy downpour
skarrach—flying shower of rain, light snow
smuchter—a thin, light mist or rain
spleiter—wind-driven rain or snow
wersh—raw, cold and damp
If you or your animal friends have words of your own you’d like to add, please do get in touch.
In the meantime, the forecast is for more heavy wintery showers tonight and ice in the morning. The Met Office today issued a yellow warning of snow. There are currently no SEPA flood alerts for Edinburgh and the Lothians (Sunday, 4.15pm), although the Water of Leith was running high and fast when we squelched along beside it this afternoon.
* I. MacLeod, P. Cairns, C. MacAfee and R. Martin, eds (1999) Scots Thesaurus. Scottish National Dictionary Association. Edinburgh: Polygon
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