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.