Carry on... it's only rain!

People who live in the UK do not take the rain seriously.  Rain is the run of the mill, to be expected, nothing to get flustered about (or even mention) kind of weather. Wellies and umbrellas are optional.  Most people just carry on walking, cycling, or pushing their baby carriages maybe at a bit quicker of a pace.  

As I was walking home today, I approached an elderly gentleman on his way to somewhere and we both peeked out of our umbrellas to see which side of the sidewalk the other intended to pass on when he said to me, "It's a proper umbrella day, isn't it?" I smiled and agreed and thought to myself that any sort of drips from the sky is a "proper umbrella day" for me.

Weather is a funny thing here.  The other day Jeff and I walked to pick up Max from school and by the looks of the sky there was no threat of rain, but by the time we got there, it was literally raining, blowing and snowing gigantic snowflakes.  Thankfully it was a Tuesday, which meant that the café across the street in St. Peter's church was open.

Every Tuesday people from the village of
Wolvercote volunteer their time to work in the café.

We ran inside for cover and ate scones and drank tea until the weather became bearable to walk home in.   Olivia and Luke take a city bus home from school every afternoon, and sadly, on this particular day their bus was 30 minutes late!  They were frozen and dripping wet when they finally arrived home.  Their umbrellas and even the bus shelter did little to keep them dry as the wind blew the rain right into the shelter. It was a great night to start up our first fire in the fireplace.  I have a feeling we'll be doing a lot of fire building this winter just to keep the chill off.  I'm already counting down the days until spring!