Rain, Rain come again! (All Join In)

You know how I was going on and on in a dreary fashion about it raining a lot two months? Well guess what. IT'S STILL BLOOMIN' RAINING.(I realise this doesn't count as news to everyone who shares this island with me but it's worth reiterating to those in sunnier places). There was a report in the paper yesterday about the cancellation of a concert in Hyde Park due to the 'total emulsification of the surface'. I have no idea what that means but it sounds pretty Armageddon-ish. The Olympic Torch must be burning through unprecedented amounts of paraffin to keep alight on its journey through constant drizzle interrupted by torrential downpours.

BUT.

That first paragraph marks a transition point in this blog and in The Little Wooden Horse household. For we are going to moan No More. We are taking positive action and making a decision to choose rain. To embrace it. To LOVE it (we have booked a summer holiday in Cornwall-we have no choice really)...and we invite you to join us and re-calibrate your gloom settings to 'Hurray it's wet again!'.

Bill was the pioneer. This weekend, in the face of the monsoon style buckets dropping out of the sky once more he went running round and round in circles in the garden getting as soaked as he possibly could. He's been hardened off by the amount of time he's spent reciting 'The Jumblies' recently; great stalwarts in the face of Weather they are.


It made him very happy, and culminated in a good session of making rain angels on the sodden ground.


It got me looking for more positive takes on rain within our bookshelves and it wasn't that easy . There was Shirley Hughes' lovely (of course) 'Alfie Weather' but they end up indoors escaping from the wet stuff there.
We've got Geraldine McCaughrean's amazing Ark diary; 'Not the End of the World' but that seems premature (just) and it's not exactly a cheery read.

Tove Jansson's 'Moominsummer Madness' is probably a better example of how to enjoy a good flood. I wouldn't mind relocating to a floating theatre for a summer season; and those genuinely planning out-door productions at the moment should be studying it as a 'how to' guide (if in doubt float your audience on upside-down umbrellas).

But for today I am going to offer you one of my favourite poems from one of my favourite books;  Nice Weather for Ducks  from 'All Join In' by Quentin Blake:

'..We don't care if it's raining
and the sky is murky black-
We're joining in the Duck Song
QUACKQUACKQUACKQUACKQUACK'

It's truly impossible to feel anything other than Purest Joy reading this book and looking at Quentin Blake's pictures. Come on Clouds! Bring it on!

I need more though in case the lip begins to wobble in weeks to come? Suggestions please...

All Join In' by Quentin Blake, pub.Red Fox isbn 0-09-996470-8 -but you've got it already right? It's an ESSENTIAL for life. Should be on that government poverty line necessary list thingy along with the beer allowance.