I live in Devon right on the coast and have a 20 minute walk to work. Like a lot of your correspondents I love rainwear and have a range of macs and capes, but I am also really into umbrellas and own about 20-25 of those too. I'd like to share with you and others on your website an example of the weather I love to experience - this is from last autumn but hopefully we will get some more before too long this autumn and winter. I have read Wobke's mails to you and I feel very much the same way.

On this particular morning I could see before I left the house to walk to the office that the wind was pretty wild, so I put my long black PVC cape on over my work suit, put on red leather gloves and my black knee boots and took a great big red umbrella out of the cupboard. I made sure I had a shoulder bag rather than a handbag so that I had both hands free to hold on to the brolly.

Even walking down the road that my house is in, the wind was pushing my brolly around and my cape was beginning to flap so I knew that when I got to the seafront it would be a real struggle. As I got towards the corner where my road meets the seafront, there is a large block of apartments and it is always really windy - the wind there was almost blowing me to a standstil and the brolly was beginning to buckle out of shape under the force of the gusts and the sheets of rain, so I half closed the umbrella to see if l could make progress that way with me still shielded by the half-open umbrella and my cape whipping against my legs.

I finally got on to the seafront and was able to open the umbrella fully again - it was still really stormy but I had the umbrella (tightly gripped in both hands) held across my chest so that my whole body was trying to keep it in place against the wind.

I was about halfway to the office when suddenly a violent squall hit - the wind which had been about 30 mph suddenly went up to about 60-70 mph with torrents of rain, and I was blown backwards with the whole frame of the brolly buckling against me and flapping all over the place but without blowing inside out.

I tried to get the brolly closed, as I knew it would not survive this, but before I could manage to control the brolly enough to close it, the wind had blown me around and the underside of the brolly was exposed to the storm - it was immediately ripped completely inside out and destroyed - part of the cover was even torn off the frame. I instantly knew that it was totally ruined so I let go of the now useless brolly which flew off in the air through the storm, and I tried to get my cape under control - the squall was trying to lift it completely up into the air.

I turned back into the storm and tried to carry on walking towards the office with my cape flying, one hand hanging onto the shoulderbag and one hand trying to control my cape.....

Before long my hair was soaked as my hood was being blown right back off my head as I walked, bent double, against the storm. I tried to hold the cape hood on but the wind was just ripping it out of my hand.

When I got to the office, I had to go to the ladies room to sort myself out, and I discovered that lots of other people had had the same problem as me. My secretary had walked to the office and her stormproof golf umbrella had been destroyed, so her trench coat was completely sodden, and another of the girls had lost her husband's black gent's brolly to the gusts, so her mac was dripping and she had had her hat blown off as well!

Roll on autumn and winter...

Suzy

Hi Suzy

So sorry for the delay in thanking you for your very nice letter.

I must say I didn't know about umbrellas! I have always thought of them as too vulnerable in a storm, and that you just had to battle through with your mackintosh unaided...

Thank you for enlightening me!

(Any pics of your collection? It would be lovely to have an umbrella showcase on the site ...)

Best wishes

Lorraine

Thanks for your reply - another stormy experience yesterday, when I got a
real drenching on the way home last night.

With the prevailing wind here I usually find that I am facing head on into the wind in the morning, and I get blown home at night. However yesterday the wind was in the east so I was battling against it on the walk home. I was wearing my long black PVC mac, black kneeboots and a black trilby (with a really wide brim). I also had a big Burberry print umbrella with me (which was really expensive). Just as I left the office the weather got really bad - I think I was out in the worst of it - and I was really struggling to hold on to the umbrella with one hand and keep a tight hold on to my trilby with the other. Part of my walk home is right along the seafront and I was really worried that my expensive brolly was going to be damaged by the gusts - it was taking a real battering - so I decided to close the brolly and concentrate on clamping the trilby tight on to my head with my free hand. So when I got home the trilby was absolutely drenched but I was dry from the neck down and at least the brolly survived. Today is grey here so its my Burberry trench coat and the Burberry brolly again today - I dont think its going to get as windy as it did for that hour or so last night.

Best wishes

Suzy

Dear Suzy

Thanks for this. Delighted to hear you have a proper Burberry - I know they aren't completely waterproof, but in stormy weather they are absolutely terrific, surely!

Thought any more about the umbrella museum? I'm worried that with the weather getting worse with global warming they will all get wrecked and it will be too late.

Lorraine