Strawberries and Cream...

My non-British friends may or may not know this, but if you were asked to epitomise an English summer, you would probably say: strawberries and cream, garden parties with Pimms and lemonade, Wimbledon on the TV, cricket (for some), picnics in the park/countryside, family days on the beach...

Nothing beats an English summer. But this year something has gone wrong...! Honestly, my first English summer for years! Worse than usually wrong, that is. OK, we always get quite a lot of rain, but this year, we have had a LOT a lot of rain. The wettest summer since records began 100 years ago. Flooding all over the country. Nine out of ten cricket matches, parties, BBQs, and open air concerts cancelled because of... the rain.

(not my pictures, I am glad to say)

Gloucester has thankfully escaped scenes like these...

Tewkesbury, just a few miles north of us, earlier in July

 According to the weather-men, the problem is the Gulf Jet Stream, which normally sweeps down and  around the Atlantic Ocean bringing us warm sunny summer weather on its right shoulder - but which has this year dropped south by a very long way, leaving us on its left shoulder and therefore in the rain and cold. For weeks. Temperatures of 12 to 15 degrees when it should be high 20s. These graphics I stole from Google give the idea:

I really needed the sunshine too... but, it looks as though this weather pattern is going to be with us until at least the end of July. Possibly until September. Aaaaaaggghhhhhh!!!

But we are trying to be British and stoical and making the best of it. The evenings are still light until nearly 10.00 pm, so that helps. Walking with Frodo come rain or shine also helps. Alex has managed to play a few cricket matches:

And yesterday Alex and I went strawberry-picking, and today we all feasted on meringues, strawberries and clotted cream... mmmmmmmm...