Sad - 2

SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder - is something more commonly experienced in the darker, winter months. But I can't help feel I might be suffering from it right now, in mid-July because the weather is just SOOOOO rubbish!

It's 12noon and I'm sitting in the living room with all the lights on; there's a torrential rainstorm outside, complete with thunder and lighting; and according to weather reports it's all set to continue for at least another 48 hours.

So where has the summer gone? Or is it coming late this year? Or not at all? Yes, I know we had a wonderful two or three weeks in April, but come on, this is definitely the wettest, most miserable summer in my memory. I can only find respite in counting the days until we fly to Australia this winter, at least then - hopefully! - we will have some sunshine to look forward to! [and yes, I'm fully aware that flying to Australia can contribute to global warming effects, but we do offset, and when big businesses start to acknowledge their part and take action to reduce their emissions, then maybe I'll reconsider my own]

It reminds me of Ireland - my childhood summers spent sitting at the window staring out at the rain. Sheets of rain, day after day. Then it'd stop, mam would run out with the washing and hang it on the line and before she'd finished putting the last piece up, it would start up again. Steaming, damp washing would pile up in the kitchen, amidst the cooking and the chatter.

Inevitably... annually... we would go to Wexford where we'd have the pleasure of sitting at a caravan window doing the same said thing - staring at the rain! At least it was so much noisier there, and the thunder and lightning felt so much closer and lower in the sky. I didn't mind the rain so much then; I wasn't really the sporting type as a child - in fact, not sporty at all! - so at least I wouldn't get hooshed out to play if it was raining, and I could enjoy my Enid Blyton's and my Agatha Christie's indoors, amidst the mayhem of seven people in a tiny tin can.

And then when I lived in Germany we would have the most wonderful storms, loud, practiced, powerful and impressive. I loved German weather; proper lush white snow in the winter, and freezing cold, followed by lovely long hot summer days in the summer, interspersed with the odd thunder storm. It felt like proper, "Hollywood" type weather, the seasons all in the right order, doing the right thing...

But back to the current and it continues, this steady downpour. It's relentless, but not quite so impressive as the older storms I knew. I really can't believe it's mid-July and it's been weeks since we've had a day without rain.... I need some sunshine, it's making me sad.