Weather - Wet and Gloomy

I am utterly fed up with rain.  And more rain.  And yet even more rain.  Everyone else is fed up too.  Day after day, it rains, with some brief interludes of sunshine in between.  Just to give one a false hope of decent weather to come.  And it is cold too, with temperatures hovering around 12 or 13 degrees.   Sometimes it rises to 17 degrees but this is offset with a cold wind blowing from the east.  

It was predicted that May would be a wet month, after the wettest April on record.  And now we hear that the cold weather will continue for another four weeks.  Well into June, which is a summer month.

However, the South East is still in a drought, so the experts tell us.  And there is a hose pipe ban.   Not that we have to worry about dragging a watering can around the garden at the moment. Our garden is saturated and we live on a hill, where normally the water runs off very quickly, due to the gravelly soil and a network of mole tunnels.

 So is this rain the wrong rain?   The same as we have the wrong snow on railway tracks.  No, it is rather the right rain but at the wrong time of year.   Apparently, as the trees are developing leaves and every other plant is madly growing, they are taking all the moisture, which is not then making its way down into ground and raising the underground water tables.   But I think that there has been enough rain for both trees, plants and the water tables. 

People are still wearing warm clothes, coats and boots, while our summer clothes lie languishing in our wardrobes.  I have even worn my new possum wool hat which I bought in Wanaka, NZ, and my extra thick fleece, bought from the same shop.  Clothes I bought for next winter.   It no longer matters that I lost two sun dresses and five summer blouses in Christchurch, NZ.   It does not appear that I would have had a chance to wear them anyway.

So today I took some photographs of our rain drenched garden through the rain spotted windows.

Our patio, with the umbrella lying on the table, in readiness for some sunshine, no matter how brief.

The back garden, normally so dry, but now water soaked.   The second crop of beans have not sprouted, as the soil is not warming up, and the tomatoes are going nowhere.   The lettuce seeds have disappeared due to the local cats using that part of the garden as a public toilet.

The conservatory, looking dreary and not all inviting, without some sunshine.

In my more depressed moments I recall a short story from a book of short stories that I borrowed from our local library a few months back.  Sorry I cannot remember the name of the book, but you would not want to read the story anyway.   It is too depressing.  The story is set in England, where after years of constant rain and heavy clouds, the country is in chaos, due to food shortages and a general decline in law and order.     The main character, and her husband, decide to leave London, and walk to Norway, where conditions are meant to be better.  How they are meant to get across the channel is not made clear! But it is a story after all. So on their walk through the sodden countryside, with leaden skies overhead, and constant rain, and fearing for their lives from bandits, they came across a nasty person, who murdered the husband and took the wife prisoner.  After living with this rather horrible person, she murdered him by tipping him over the edge of a platform.   He landed head first onto the sodden ground.   She then continued on her merry way and the story ended.    A bizarre story, and I wondered why I even bothered to read it, but on these dark days with the rain relentlessly coming down, I cannot help thinking about it.   Gloomy thoughts I know.   But continuous rain, grey skies and cold weather does that to you.


I think that I am suffering from SAD disease, due to lack of light.   Usually a winter complaint but definitely applies to the current weather conditions.   I could also be suffering from Vitamin D deficiency due to the lack of sunshine.   I may need therapy.   


Like everyone else, I badly need some sunshine, with maybe some fluffy white clouds floating in the bright blue sky.   Plus a few showers at night, just to keep the ground nice and moist so that I do not have to water the garden with a watering can.   Perfect.   Not too much to ask, is it!