When you say hills you really mean mountains right?

Coming from east coast America I have become accustomed to a certain pattern of weather movement throughout the year. Even as a young child I knew that looking over the mountains to the west in Spring and Fall I could watch a rolling storm or batch of wind clouds come right over us. However in the winter and summer the same could be seen but even more interesting systems could come in from the north or even south. As a child in Pennsylvania one learns quickly what the term 'NorEaster' means.

This isn't the case in Scotland. The North Atlantic is a turbulent part of the globe, ever changing with its winds, pressure, temperature, etc. The northern part of the British Isles feels the brunt of these changing moods. The locals around the countryside in Scotland say, "If you're not happy with the weather now, just wait 20 minutes and it will be different." How true is that. What a job it must be to be a meteorologist here, you can just about always be right.

I entered into Scotland by train on Friday passing through York and Newcastle England and then across the borders into sheep fields, thistle patches and coastline. Take a moment and think of a romantic film about a Scottish maiden waiting for her hero soldier to return from some war on the continent, or just think of the Outlander book series. You see the bluffs and the waves crashing against the rocks? Yeah, no seriously, the seaside by the North Sea is like that. Its just wild seeing the sea and then turning round and seeing the heather and mosses, it makes songs well up inside you!

Moving on. Edinburgh airport is gray, such great camouflage against the sky. I was picked up by car and we drove, in the rain through the "hills" to Auchterarder. Hills. rolling, one might have a lovely house on a hill, or go for an afternoon walk on a hill. PEOPLE DIE IN THE SCOTTISH HILLS. You can't build a house on them because the rocks are too steep! Classification of these hills are actually mountains, found that out during lunch, but the Scots are a modest people and prefer to call them hills. Much more endearing I say as well. Oh, we're going for a walk on one this weekend, should be lovely.

Stand by a hill here and look around, I think you'd see at least 30 different shades of green. Its almost unnerving. First of all you've got this bigass 'hill' at the back of you, then you look round and you see all this LIFE. Yes, plant life. It's freezing cold, but theres flora all around. This brings me back to my original point, the weather here is so bizarre that all theres left to do is GROW.

Take the rainforest right, it rains buckets there all the time and its hot as Hades thus making trees that are hundreds of feet high. Ye've not got the heat here, but the moisture definitly, and as living things do, they adapt. Shrubs, nettle, thistle, grasses here are so hearty they can withstand the winds and odd cold spells that turn up ohhhh, let say IN AUGUST. Crops are planted and fruit later in the year, but thrive. Here at Ochil Tower, we are totally organic, have been for 40 years, but still theres zucchini that are 10 inches in diameter and 18 inches long, that's one damn big squash.

In the time it took me to write this blog the temperature has dropped I'd guess 5 degrees outside and the cloud cover has gone from minimal to totally covered. The weatherman called for HEAVY RAIN today, I'm guessing we'll see that by dinnertime.