Xmas Duality

Walking on the beach this morning I was faced with the strangeness of our weather today, very mild conditions but storm force winds. Looking westwards there was spindrift or spoondrift, as we call it in Scotland, flicking spray off the crests of the waves with heavy grey rain clouds as a background but looking eastwards it was bright and you could easily see the bridge to nowhere bathed in sunlight. I guess its a fair summary of how things look generally at the moment - some doom and gloom with the odd beam of sunlight. 

Evidently sailors use the spindrift as a rough guide to wind speed as it means it is usually gale force 8 (beaufort) when you get these conditions.