7 reasons why I like the rain

I realise that I may in a minority of one in the whole country. But here are my 7 reasons why I like the rain.   1. It's good for my lawn. In recent weeks, I have never seen my lawn looking as nice or as green. No doubt helped enormously by the gallons of water it's being fed by nature. On those rare occasions that we have gotten a warm summer, it turns brown and I have always preferred my grass to be green.   2. It's great for golf courses. When it's warm and sunny (use your imaginations), it's not good for golf courses. They have to water the greens manually and it's not the same as the real stuff. So, as you can imagine, the greens on our course are fabulous at the moment. Of course all that lovely rain also almost washed the course downstream into the river Lee last week.   3. Gardening Ok - let's get one thing straight. Gardening is not one of my favourite pastimes. I would much rather be admiring the lovely greens as in 2 above. But I had to do some in recent days and the difference between digging soft ground and a rock hard one is huge.   4. People moaning about the weather can't be giving out about other things. One of the more pleasant changes in recent weeks is that many people have stopped complaining about the government, banks, property taxes, etc. as they have been too busy moaning about the weather. The irony here is that nothing can be done about either of them.   5. Never stuck for conversation This is generally true in Ireland anyway. Of course our weather is so unpredictable that it does give us a good conversation starter in almost any circumstances. It's harder for somebody in Spain to walk into a shop and say 'Hot today, isn't it.   6. If/when we get a few nice days,we will all be in 7th heaven. People often say what's seldom is more appreciated. So just wait for it - we'll get a few nice sunny days and everybody will be going around as if they just won the lotto.   7. Isn't it what we're known for? Along with Guinness, Riverdance, U2 (and unfortunately now banking collapses), regular rainfall is one of the things most foreign people associate with Ireland.   To be perfectly honest, I love the sun as much as anyone. But I also realise that there is nothing you can do about it.