"Ahhhhr! It's the rainy season", the old timers say, "This is how it always used to be", or words to that affect. Well, Jaap Vogel has collated all the rainfall data for Tamborine Mountain since the records started in 1889 and it seems that this could be a myth. For this month, which statistically is the wettest month for this area, we have had almost 400mm of rain, and it is only halfway through the month. As far as I can make out this figure has only been exceeded 10 times since 1889 with the greatest amounts in 1995 - 625, 1927- 800, 1947 - 1931 and 1974 - 1790, so I would reckon that this year will be counted as an exception, not the rule.

Still, I don't think we should grumble, after seeing what is happening in the UK. Only today I was reading in the Weekly Telegraph that, like here, more than a month's rain fall fell in some parts of the country on Sunday, causing a series of floods in the Midlands, the South West and Northern Ireland.