Summer - is the new autumn

Or so it would seem. After a couple of nice days, it's back to the autumnal rain and gales, it's stair-rodding it down outside, aided and abetted by a nice force 8 gale. It is actually the summer solstice but you'd actually think it was the autumn equinox, given the gash weather. I know Britain has a reputation for dodgy weather and often disappointing summers but this is unusual; we have had two MONTHS of this garbage and it is beyond a joke now. I have never had 'SAD' in June before!
This led me to a (expletive-laden) rant on Facebook and an American friend offering to swap his 100°F temps for our rain. Not even remotely funny...

The rain has caused problems at the Isle of Wight Festival today, it's the first day and cars have not been able to get onto the site, meaning gridlock right across the Island from the ferry ports and people - including residents - being stuck in traffic for literally hours. I nearly got caught out myself when driving from Ryde to Wootton for work. In the end I had to abandon the attempt to get to Wootton and beat a hasty retreat back to Ryde, the work will have to wait for another time, fortunately it is something that can wait. Even the back roads and rat runs were gridlocked! That's what you get when you get a combination of dire weather, the festival being in a not-very-sensible place and the population of a decent-sized town descending on the Island at the same time. 70,000 people is half the Island's population (approx. 140,000) again.

Here's a grabbed shot of the lovely summery June weather, as seen through the dining room doors. As someone said on a forum, you can slag off politicians to their face, boo your football team when they put in a bad performance, etc, but you can't do a damn thing about the weather, which makes it so frustrating!