Summertime is over: its official.

Summertime came to an end today. So it is now winter.

We were out all day. We left this morning in rain with grey skies and on arrival had to find a parking place which was not flooded. It rained all day - which did not matter as we were enjoying a day of competition contract bridge. But on leaving it was still pelting down and though it was little after 8 p.m. all was dark and dismal.

The picture, I hope, shows just how bleak it all looks here. Yet we are the lucky ones, for hurricane force winds and torrential rain are forecast for the south of England and here in the central belt of Scotland, we will miss the worst of it.

Yet summertime is clearly over.