“it’s gone black over Bills mums” they say round here when it goes dark and cloudy. When the clouds pile up and you sometimes get snowy white tops to them when there is some blue sky too. The wind suddenly whips up. I was out in something like this today. One minute rivulets of rain were running of my brolly (umbrella) and the next it whipped inside out! The gust almost took it out of my hands.

I turned into the wind, getting soaked, and used the gust to bend the umbrella vaguely back into shape. Then I closed it to make sure all the little struts were shutting properly. One thread had wrapped itself round a strut, so I had to release it before I could concertina it down into shape. But all was well.

On the way home the sun shone in front of me and I looked behind at the dark clouds in the hope of seeing a rainbow, but sadly there was none.