Wednesday 2nd May

First an apology for three days in a row about the rain but the Scots have a word for this weather, I have several myself – you might not be surprised to hear, but they call it dreek.  That is one of those wonderful words that sound exactly as they mean; onomatopoeia is the term for such words, like biff and clunk.  And for this type of persistent and wet and windy weather the perfect term is dreek.  Apparently they have a lot of dreek up in Scotland, another reason not to move there, though it is lovely for a visit, especially if the sun is shining.   Lerwick in the Shetlands has the unusual celebrity of being the wettest place in the United Kingdom; apparently it is dreek there most of the time.  I know that one reason for human beings apparent rise to the top of the animal kingdom is down to our wonderful adaptability; however how anyone could ever have adapted to live in a place of almost permanent dreek is beyond me.  Is it just me, or does this weather actually depress others too?  I find I am really laid low by the awful persistent rain, it is absolutely not conducive to my soul, or any other part of my being.  On Monday we had a brief respite, and the sun was warm and welcoming if only for a few hours, but yesterday it was back to torrential downpour again.  I would love to be able to just hunker down and hibernate, but I cannot, this is May for goodness sake, we should be out in the gardens and the parks celebrating the advent of Summer and hibernation is long past us; even the squirrels are awake and, wet and bedraggled as they might be, they are scampering around in search of windblown food, even in this awful dreek.

Tuesday 1st May

And after the downpours a glimpse of sunshine breaking through the clouds has brought a most welcome touch of warmth to all our hearts.  And as I stride out hopeful that May will bring forth the flowers that March winds and April showers have prepared us for I notice that one result of the recent horrendous rain is that we now have gutters full of petals.  The wind that accompanied the wet has stripped most of the tree blossom and blown it down onto the paths and roads, the rain in its turn swept them into the gutter, where huge puddles have gently evaporated with the early morning sunshine leaving blankets of white and pink petals all over the gutters.  What a lovely sight and so temporary too, before we know it this lovely sight will be gone, the petals having now served their purpose, the trees hopefully now all pollinated, they can wither and die quickly turning to a brown slush that will be swept away when the rain, never far away returns.  Enjoy the sight while you can, for like snowflakes out of season they will soon evaporate.  And remember that though we may not be rich and famous; we may spend most of our lives in the gutter, but even here occasionally it is filled with petals.