Wet Wet Wet

 I don't like to boast, but yesterday Lichfield, according to the Met Office, was the wettest place in the country, with 52.8mm of rain – that's two inches in the old money – falling in a four-hour period in the morning. I can't say I'm surprised: the weather was spectacular, with fierce vertical rain, lurid sheet lightning, earth-shaking thunder, and the lower-lying parts of Beacon Park under water. And that morning onslaught wasn't the end of it – back it came in the evening, as dramatic as before, clocking up (according to a local weather station) another 41mm. So that's the best part of four inches in 24 hours, and the drought of the past two months is well and truly over, putting an end to reckless talk of 'another 1976', and greening up the wilting vegetation. The garden is looking wonderfully refreshed, and the birds will be glad to have worms and snails on the menu again.