Soggy Summer

Dateline: Cattaraugus County

We are getting far too many soggy summers lately and this has been one of the soggiest. There hasn't been constant rain - well mostly not - but showers and thunderstorms and American showers are so much more aggressive than gentle British ones. The rain comes pounding down, battering the poor plants and the grass sucks at your shoes like a bog. Though sometimes the morning fog can be beautiful.

Crammed into the valley like cotton wool. (Americans don't say cotton wool but simply cotton.) Away in the ponds and damp patches, frogs are burping. And it looks as though it's too wet even for the geese, who appear to be leaving town.

By way of dry land.  The stream is the colour of chocolate milk.

The other morning, I saw a duck slide into it and swim off quacking. I didn't know if it was lost or left behind.  Meanwhile here's an atmospheric picture of a mailbox in the mist.

Surrounded by wild flowers. They don't seem to mind the rain.