Whipping Up A Storm

Wow! Last night brought the most dramatic and sudden storm I have seen in years. From a beautifully hot and sunny day with clear blue skies and the occasional light breeze (which turbo dried my gently flapping washing), the skies suddenly turned into a dark and swirling soup, menacing enough for any witch’s cauldron . The clouds descended until they were almost touching the rooftops, turned nearly black and looked as though they were simmering in preparation for something really dramatic.

We were not disappointed. Almost instantaneously, the wind whipped itself into a frenzy, knocking pot plants over on the balcony and kicking an empty bucket around the garden like a football. At the same time, the heavens opened and rather than just falling out of the sky, the rain drops seemed to hurl themselves towards the ground as though determined to hammer their way through the roofs and paving stones. A few seconds later, the skies started their display of lights with non-stop sheet lightening interspersed with the occasional fork zig-zagging its way to earth with a loud crack behind the row of houses out the back and all this was accompanied by deafening roars, rumbles and bangs of thunder. Mother Nature really did put on a most spectacular and sudden display for us, gratifying sight, sound and smell senses simultaneously.

Ah, the wonder and the power of it all. And yet both of my children, who cannot fall asleep at this time of year if there is too much light seeping through a chink in the curtains, slept as soundly as babes through the whole thing.  Go figure.