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Quote: Forecasters at the Met Office have issued a severe weather warning across the North West warning up to four inches of rain could fall throughout Friday.

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The warning said there was “increasing concern” for towns and cities in the region with “exceptionally wet conditions” and winds gusting to more than 50mph expected.

A spokesman added: “The public should be prepared for the risk of flooding.”

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I sometimes feel I'm a real odd-bod on this forum, although I know there are thousands out there who feel like me.  I love the whole camping experience, the gear I've collected over the years, the setting up (always a ritual I've got down to a fine art), that moment when you shut the car door and go in the tent and curl up for a snooze after the drive to the site, Lil Dog happy to be back in the tent and snoring quietly beside me knowing we've got a weekend's walking ahead of us.

I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't a tad fed up with the rain, rain and more rain we're enjoying at the moment, but I can't say it really gets me DOWN.  Its just English weather isn't it?  Showery weather is what makes our country so lush and green and so heaving at the seams with fauna and flora.  My garden certainly looks better this year than it has done for the last 5 years, its so pretty it makes me ache with happiness.

Last Saturday I purchased from Wilkinsons a cheery red plastic rain cape for less than £3.00 and me and Lil' Dog have already walked some 30 miles this week, rain and shine, and loved every minute of our walks.  This week alone we've seen countless assorted insects, including dragonflies and damselflies, frogs, many different birds - including close up views of buzzards and a kestrel - hares, rabbits, foxcubs with their mum and even managed to get very close, quite by accident, to a roe deer on a country lane.  It walked out of the hedge just a few yards up ahead, looked at us in astonishment, then trotted off down the lane, stopping every few yards to look back before bounding off into the hedge on the other side.

My one sorrow is that in my 30 odd years of camping I've never yet managed to get to Scotland.  That's a dream I might have to leave to retirement as I can't contemplate the trip in my poor old Ka, but one day ...

I can't imagine anything worse than driving all the way over to Europe to camp in hot sun. It just wouldn't be for me, but of course I appreciate we are all different - my grandparents were great caravanners in the 50s and 60s and spent all their retirement summers on the continent.  My sister also had a couple of camping holidays in France with her husband and 4 children and thinks I'm mad when I rave about the joys of rural England.

If you like walking or cycling, and enjoy diverse landscapes and wildlife, there's just nowhere like the British Isles, and if you look at the summer period overall I think there are enough sunny days - for me, at least!

p.s. Northern USA is currently sweltering in a heatwave - just a thought, doesn't their weather end up over here ... watch this space, maybe we'll all have a sunny summer yet (and then we'll all be moaning about the heat, wont' we? ...!)