Rainy Day Walk

It’s raining. More accurately, it’s pouring. Absolutely bucketing down. It thrums on the roof. Rattles down the gutters. Splashes on the brick paving and runs in rivulets down the driveway. The day is grey. The sun blanketed by clouds. Grey, wet, cold. I check the screen of our little weather station. It says we have had 24.1mm rain so far today. I keep going back and checking it. The number creeps up. 32.6mm. 38.3mm. 47.1mm. But still the rain doesn’t stop. I stay inside, the dog’s mournful eyes on me from her bed beside the lounge fire. We’re both waiting for the gap in the rain. Not that she cares about getting wet, but she knows I won’t go out in this downpour.

Mid-afternoon and the rain eases to a thick drizzle. ‘Come on then,’ I say to Maisie. She is up and at the door in a whirr of tail-wagging enthusiasm. I zip my rain jacket and jam a hat onto my head. Lace up my waterproof hiking boots.