ENOUGH with the rain now, please! How do we make it stop? I don’t know about you, but I am heartily sick of the relentless grey skies, rainy days and howling gales.

As I write this I am looking out at a sky the colour of cold steel, the trees are frantically waving back and forth in a strong wind; it’s also whistling through a hole in a metal gatepost behind my house. Its mournful tone has been the soundtrack to this long, drab winter.

We are hopefully emerging out of this bleak season and into spring; there are some small signs. New leaves are beginning to appear and I am very grateful for the splashes of colour provided by the Primroses.

But it’s the seemingly endless wet weather that is finally getting me down. I am not normally too bothered about winter. I enjoy the excuse to eat hearty comfort food and I don’t mind dark evenings, especially if the fire is lit.

Winter can be invigorating, but this year it’s just been dull. It’s been one storm after another and in between the violent storms it’s just been grey and wet.

Many years ago I interviewed someone on the radio about a condition known as SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder. Very few people had heard of it back then and I can remember being very sceptical.

I found it hard to believe that our health and mental wellbeing could be so badly affected by the long, dimly lit days of winter. I now fully understand why some people struggle with it.

It is hard to believe that not many months ago we were just emerging from a hosepipe ban, yet it feels like it has been raining nonstop since last August.

I am putting South West Water on notice: I do not expect a water shortage this coming year! We are overflowing with the stuff. There is more than our rivers and drains can cope with.

Then there’s the damage this constant onslaught of wind and rain is doing to our homes and the UK infrastructure.

So far this winter I have lost roof slates, our gutters became blocked and overflowed and I’ve watched nervously as my garden fence sways back and forth. It’s on borrowed time and I fully expect it to be blown down any day now.

During a recent thunderstorm we had some kind of power surge and the landline phone no longer works.

Then there’s the green slim and moss on the walls and pathways; nothing has a chance to dry out.

Meanwhile, the roads around here are in a terrible state. The potholes have got bigger and deeper as the constantly running water swirls in and out of them gouging larger and larger craters.

Admittedly the road to our house is more like a country lane and takes quite a battering from heavy farm machinery, but it is Cornwall Council’s responsibility to maintain it. To give them credit they do respond very promptly when potholes are reported.

Before Christmas a gang came out with their cans of green spray paint and circled the holes, but oddly it seems they only sprayed around every other pothole.

I couldn’t understand why some fairly shallow holes were marked for repairs and yet much deeper ones just a couple of feet away were ignored. Consequently the holes that were not repaired have got much worse.

That’s just one short section of road where I live, so imagine the scale of repairs needed across Cornwall and Devon.

Then there’s the damage to cables from falling trees, the damage caused to rail lines from flooding, the loss of more of our cliffs from the battering they’ve had.

In addition, the fields are waterlogged making life difficult for farmers and that could ultimately have an impact on all of us if crops are affected

All in all it’s been another damaging and costly winter. But there’s one consolation, it’s been relatively mild.

We have escaped too much snow and ice, and yet it has still felt cold. I think the damp air and lack of sunshine make it feel chillier than it actually is.

My “infamous” determination to keep heating costs down probably hasn’t helped. Yesterday it was 13.2 Celsius outside and only slightly warmer at 13.7C inside!

Winter seems more of an endurance test this year because of the lack of sunshine. I realised this a couple of weeks ago on a rare day when it was sunny.

Feeling a bit of warmth was amazing and the brightness of the day made it feel like a light had finally been switched on after months stumbling around in the gloom.

Thankfully we’re at the point of the Spring Equinox, so from now on we’ll have more hours of daylight and hopefully it’ll get steadily warmer and drier.

Personally I can’t wait to see the back of winter this year, I just wish I’d invested in a few more water butts in case South West Water do tell us they’re running out of the stuff.

Surely that can’t happen this year, can it?

Bye for now.