Mindy Hammond
Despite washout June, our columnist has managed to retain her sunny outlook...
Well, the weather experts have promised us it’ll improve from July and after such a wet June, I hope they’re right. We were a little bit spoilt for sunshine last year, but sadly that just means our expectations are higher this time around and the only people who seem to benefit are the manufacturers of fake tan lotion.
Last year, we cut our hay nice and early to a bumper crop, but today the grass looks like an overgrown, sloppy, floppy mess and until it’s good and dry the blades daren’t go near it. Meanwhile, horse owners are trying to keep their animals in the fields as much as possible in a bid to make last year’s hay last until this year’s crop is safe to feed. This is a great solution, unless you have horses who hate the rain or are prone to laminitis, a disease caused by overgrazing on lush grass, which is extremely painful and potentially terminal. No prizes for guessing which category our ponies belong to…
The kids are about to break up from school and if the weather doesn’t improve soon sales of hair dye are likely to overtake fake tan as parents turn prematurely grey by the end of summer after months of anxiety. Keeping children entertained on a rainy day isn’t solved by a movie and a box of Lego any more and for some bizarre reason, wearing waterproofs and wellies to enjoy the outdoors isn’t an option.
There’s a saying, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, you are just wearing the wrong clothes,” and perhaps if we encouraged children to embrace the rain, dressed them up in colourful raincoats, hats and wellies they might go and splash in puddles, make mud pies and build a den. Most families seem to own a trampoline – bouncing on a wet one is hysterical and making a secret den underneath it is even better.
When we remember our own summer holidays, there were always one or two that were a washout, and sometimes they became the most memorable. Swimming in the sea in rain is actually great fun, until your lips turn blue, and a semi-deserted beach is the best place to take a fishing net and bucket.
Rock pools will be teeming with life and catching little fish is a great challenge. Our girls would be set little competitions; who can catch the biggest crab or smallest fish. We would set them a time limit and clamber over rocks with them. The girls would each have one of us as their “assistant” and our job was to seek out the most populated pool and claim it. It was quite competitive and while the girls shrieked and giggled with excitement, they also learnt about the environment, discovering limpets weren’t rocks, but creatures, that the red, jelly-like balls were sea urchins and waiting patiently for a shell to move, because it was a hermit crab’s home. One of the favourite bits was setting the crabs free, because it was a race to see which would get to the water first – and one of them would always forget that crabs move sideways. Teenagers aren’t so easy to motivate. Once they eventually rise from their beds, one look at the rain rolling down the windowpane and they’ll be on social media or firing up the latest computer game, slopping around the house in their pyjamas, unless, by some miracle, we find something to raise a spark of enthusiasm. We are lucky. Living in the country means learning to drive a tractor in the fields at the age of 13 and at 16 you can drive it on the road. Teenage boys may not relish the idea of working as part-time farm labourers, but tell them they’ll be given driving lessons and, ultimately, the keys to an old Massey Ferguson and watch their eyes light up. The farmer gets seasonal help and the lads learn a skill alongside a work ethic, with plenty of physical exercise thrown in. Everybody wins. Teenage girls are a little more complicated, although they can be bribed. My last resort is often a wardrobe clear-out. If they do a good job and sell as many items as possible, they’re promised a shopping trip or a gift voucher. If they’re not keen on attacking their clothes, we sometimes have a go at baking. Even if the results are inedible, the process is fun, although the Aga usually takes a few weeks to recover.
One thing never changes. Foul weather won’t dissuade any teenager from a night out. Even during the most miserable June for years, they are out dancing the night away, dressed to the nines and showing off their tans, whether they were earned on the beach in St Tropez or applied from a bottle in the bathroom.