Summer -good and bad

 Declaring the drought and announcing a virtually nationwide hosepipe ban had the desired effect. The rain gods were propitiated. Without hesitation they all withdrew their industrial action and returned with a vengeance -making up for lost time.
We mere mortals should be well satisfied. Not only are the aquifers, ponds, rivers and reservoirs full but we have surplus water everywhere. From where we now stand, sit or swim, we are wallowing in their largesse. Never again shall we insult them by suggesting they had packed up caring for us and gone away on long leave. In future times when we feel we are short of a drop, or even a bucket full, we will keep stumm. Counties, countries, continents will conspire to welcome little or no rain. We shall await the offerings of the Rain Gods with patience and humility. Honest -we will.   In the meantime we must look for the good amongst the bad.     So the swallows

 which were so late in arriving have made their nests and hatched their first broods. The sky around and between The Old Rectory and its outbuildings has been filled these past few days with the chirrupping sounds of young fledgelings on their preliminary flying sorties.Other good news is that Truffle's brood of Summer Flowers are growing stronger by the day. On the downside, they have yet to play outside in the sunshine. They venture  gingerly to the doorstep of the ark, occasionally a little further, but Truffle soon herds them indoors again. Maybe, like us, they look out and wonder: "Will it ever stop raining?"  Elsewhere around RectoryReserve the porcine herd are wishing pigs could fly instead of having to wade through ever increasing amounts of muck. We wish that for them too. At this time of year they should be recovering from the winter; spending lazy sunny days mooching and gruntling and wallowing and scratching. Instead they are dragging their bodies through the mire. I imagine them looking up at the endless grey skies and snorting: "Enough! The joke is over! We don't like mud that much!".   Elsewhere, though, nature is benefitting from such generous watering. The berries are filling up on the bushes. Too wet to pick unfortunately. The grass is 6ft high and lush but it is far too wet to harvest for hay. We hear tales of a local farmer whose crop lays rotting on the ground. The
price of a bale next winter will be prohibitive for many. Cases of abandoned horses and ponies will escalate.  The effects of so much rain will ricochet well into the future. Today I walked the dogs in the wildflower meadow and smiled at the abundance of flowers and thistles; is it just my imagination or are they more varied and colourful than in previous years? Perhaps I am just looking for something pretty amongst all the gloom. For gloom enough there is: The Great Yorkshire Show was cancelled after the first day today - the first time ever for weather reasons. Closer to home a Food Fayre was cancelled at the weekend; a well regarded country show a fortnight back was totally waterlogged; we have more markets, shows, food fayres coming up. How to plan? How to budget? How to provision. The list seems endless. The weather plays havoc in ways other than the obvious.

Nature has a way of balancing out - eventually. We have to believe that the sun will return and with it maybe some balmy breezes to hasten the drying out of field, pen, house........

For now though Pilot's look says what we all feel.
Stop the rain; the joke is over; the wettest drought in history is no longer funny. Let's just get back to normal. Please.
Or - someone up there please advise - is now the time to be building the Ark??