This remarkable run of fine weather continues unabated, but the portents are not good.  It's the Horton Gala on Saturday and a perusal of the forecast for the weekend shows the inevitable threat of rain for the weekend.  In all the 12 years I have lived here and attended the Gala I can recall only one or two years when the sun has blessed the event with its presence.  Normally it rains fit to bust and blows a gale.  This can produce some indelible mental images such as the year that the WI float featured "Famous Women from History" in a howling gale and Marilyn Monro executed an involuntary recreation of the lifting skirt event to reveal a remarkable pair of knickers.  Then there was the WI's "Pirates of the Caribbean" float which due to torrential rain arrived at the playing field looking like the wreck of the Hesperus.

Mr Sod has a quirky sense of humour and so the year that the school decided to run a duck race on Gala day saw blazing hot sun and a river devoid of water.  The ducks were persuaded to the finish line by repeatedly flushing them down with buckets of water.

I have decided to give a rest to the "Guess the Weight of the Fish" for this year since it would be difficult to get a decent sized fish up from Dunsop Bridge on the day. 

Anyway, the river is again too low for decent fishing and will remain so until we get some prolonged rainfall.

I may see you at Horton on Saturday.

Ian