life under the weather (2)

Viento más estúpido, más cabrón …, thus a Spanish friend of ours inveighing the gear-busting Levante which sometimes disrupted sailing at Puerto de Santa Maria, near Cadiz, in our racing days.

I am often reminded of him when looking out the windows of the House on the Hill, at the poor trees being bashed by the merciless whirlwinds which come busting up our valley from the sea. The valley runs west-to-east, perfectly aligned, we have come to realize, to channel all wind directions spanning the compass from 210 to 330 degrees (South-Southwest to North-Northwest) and to accelerate them in a Venturi effect (the Fool likes to pretend to a scientific bent of mind, don’t you know).

Guess what the prevailing winds are on the Hill? Northwest in summer, Southwest in winter, natch, plus or minus a few degrees each side.