Wednesday 13th June

Unlike the elocution lesson of old the rain here falls everywhere, on plain and hill alike.  And an awful lot of it has fallen of late.  I described in my book ‘Catherines Story’ how the young Catherine felt as she was unceremoniously decamped form the sunshine of Cyprus and deposited in rain-bound England.  In some way she felt she were being punished, that all this rain was penance for her sins; maybe she had been the cause of Grandma, Mummy and Catherine herself having to leave the sunshine (where her Daddy stayed) and being shunted into the perpetual gloom and rain of England.  And the thought strikes me again, am I, or us rather – the English, somehow being punished for some ancient sin – The Industrial Revolution, Slavery, the Empire?  Is all this rain just an accident caused by a slight shift in the gulf stream, (possibly a result of Global Warming) or is there some deeper psychological reason behind our (self-inflicted?) suffering.   At least this morning it has stopped raining, although, being English, we know that this is but a brief respite.  I am wearing the same thick outdoor shoes since October, every day the same shoes are laced up, because you know it will either rain or the pavements will be wet.  Except for that brief holiday last week I have been wearing sensible shoes every day for nine months.  And to tell the truth I am getting a bit fed up with it.   So, come on summer, hurry up and blow away all this rain.  We are quite prepared for Wimbledon to be a wash-out, that is normal for us, but we are holding the Olympics in August, surely it must clear up by then.