Hello dave You had bad luck, the weather is not that bad in The Netherlands. We have an average of 30 inch ( 75 cm ) of rain in a year, more or less spread evenly in all seasons. Ben J.M.Zonneveld Institute of Biology,Leiden University, Clusius lab Wassenaarse weg 64, 2333 AL Leiden, The Netherlands Zonneveld@rulbim.Leidenuniv.NL Fax: +31-71-5274999. min temp -10C (15F)