Raining cats and dogs!.....

I can't believe it... raining still! It never stops. It's the middle of the day and you still need the lights on. My feet are beginning to web and I'm evolving gills behind my ears... In fact, it's raining 'cats and dogs'! And here's the proof!

Two months nearly it's been raining now, with barely a let up. The BBQ is rusted and almost fully overgrown.

Fed up I decided to go kayaking anyway, but when I got there I found the river was so high that it was dangerous to go in. The normally calm mill race at Alrewas was a torrent. An alarmed Mallard shot past spinning wildly on a mat of river weed and quickly disappeared into the distance. Further downstream on the quieter canal section things weren't much better. A long boat struggled against the flow, engine racing it barely managed to get to the lock and had to be tied in before they dared opening the gates. Long boats were designed to be towed by horses and aren't built for speed, but going downstream they were travelling faster than I could run. Many of these boats are hired by the week by holidaymakers and there were frightened faces as they sped past desperately trying to steer their newly acquired floating homes from the clutches of the weir. It looked as if the barrier had already taken a few hits and debris were starting to pile up against it.

There are several weirs along this stretch to spread the load but although this is a wide one, the waters were still rushing over at quite a rate. The photo never shows the extent of things, but the break wave was a good 5 foot high!

Defeated by the weather, I decided to go off to Ikea ( you have to be fairly defeated to go to Ikea on a weekend!), but on the trip back the sun popped out for an hour, so I stopped off at Barr Beacon. This is the view of Birmingham City 6 miles away.

The bandstand was back lit by the sun, which gave it a Stonehenge sort of a look.

The clouds returned, and England submerged into the gloom once again.

When will it stop raining????!