Rain Rain Go Away

The snow has all gone at last, but now we have rain. I think I would rather have snow because I am so sick of rain, it seems as if it has rained with hardly any break for at least a year. I know I am exaggerating, but that is how it feels!

We drove to my mum's on Sunday, it was nice to be able to get around more easily but the rain had washed the snow away and the world looked very dull and bedraggled after the beauty of the snow. The winter jasmine which grows around our door had been looking splendid before the snow came but now 
some of the bright yellow flowers have lost their colour and they look very sorry for themselves. The flowers should stay until March, but it looks as if they are on the way out. 

The River Nene skirts one of the roads that we take on the way to my mum's house, then the road crosses the Nene and heads towards Bedford. The river was very high and in certain parts it had spilled over into the surrounding fields. This time last year we were worried that there had not been enough rainfall (and it has hardly stopped raining since!) but now we have the opposite worry, the last thing we need is more rain.

I don't want this post to seem like a catalogue of moans because there was one bright spot amid the damp and gloomy garden - new shoots! It is only the end of January and no doubt we can look forward to plenty more rain and perhaps more snow too, but we can also look forward to better days ahead because even in our bedraggled and neglected garden we can see the promise of spring!