The rain it raineth every day...

Monday was the wettest day in England in the past century. The heaviest rain fell north of here, with severe flooding in Shropshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire. Clara and I had considered a trip to Ludlow, in Shropshire, for our 18th anniversary, which is today. (Ludlow is known for having the most Michelin starred restaurants in England outside of London.) But Ludlow was hard-hit by the flooding, with bridges out, roads closed, and homes evacuated. The highest rainfall total in England on Monday was in Fylingdales, North Yorkshire, just outside of Robin Hood's Bay. When we visited North Yorkshire, we were in the middle of an exceptionally dry April, with only a fraction of an inch of rain all month. Over four inches of rain (103.7 mm) fell in Fylingdales on Monday. In April, there were fire warnings in the Peak District because of the dry conditions; on Monday, most of Sheffield, just outside the Peak District, was underwater. The picture here, though, is of Pickering, a village in Yorkshire that we drove through in April on our way to Helmsley Castle and Rievaulx Abbey.

Meanwhile, I seem to be losing my will to be a tourist. With only a month and a half before we return to Minnesota, I've started to think about packing up and clearing out our house in Kenilworth. In the end, the list of things I failed to do in England will be longer than the list of things I've done.