We have now, soggily, drifted into July. Officially, it is summer. As usual, there are rumblings across the UK lamenting the absence of summer and sunshine. I am as guilty as the next person for being disappointed by the dismal weather. But, the question I pose is, have we ever had a traditional summer?

In my memory, I recall a super hot summer in 1976. I recall being lectured in school, by the headmaster, about the ways we could all save water. Essentially, this advice revolved around the concept of not leaving a tap running. Particularly, when brushing one’s teeth. Since the advent of holidays in the Costa del Sol, we are nearly all well-practiced in the fine art of sipping bottled water and not using water from the tap. In the ’70s though, this was a whole new concept. It seemed strange and quite pointless! However, dutifully we all complied and liked to think that we were doing our bit. I mention this because 1976 was a long time ago and yet, it is still in my memory as a stand-out moment. Why? Because we rarely get soaring hot summers!

Sunday saw the final day of the Wimbledon Championships. We all shared the agony and the ecstasy of seeing our raised hopes for a, modern-day, British men’s champion, plummet in the defeat of Andy Murray. We watched delays from rain and delays from fading daylight. We took the delays in our stride and accepted them as the ‘norm’ because this is the weather that we are used to, each year.

So, why do we moan? In short, I have no firm answer to that question but I think it’s more about what we like to do. Summer is marketed to us as being sunshine and picnics. Nowadays, one can include barbeques into the frame, too. It is the time when the kid’s finish school for the summer holidays. We are conditioned to expect sunshine but, why?

We all know, year on year, that we should expect exactly what we get. Sunny spells with cloud and rain. Ok, so we have had torrential rains this year. Parts of the UK have been ravaged by terrible floods, lives have been lost. So, this year, things are different. That said, didn’t we see floods a couple of years ago? Country shows have been cancelled or curtailed for the last few years, music festivals have made wellies de rigueur!

To conclude. Summer in the UK means rain; if we are honest with ourselves, we already know this but, each year, we hope for better. That’s why, we marvel at the concept of brushing our teeth with a tumbler of water instead of a running tap, we become emotional about tennis and we buy rain gear for summer music festivals.

It’s what we do.