Storm!

It's a simple fact of my life that arrangements change. This afternoon, for example, I was supposed to be going across to school for a retirement party but then the Minx was admitted to hospital with her foot. I mean, OBVIOUSLY with her foot - it hadn't dropped off - but because a consultant saw her foot and wanted her on intravenous antibiotics.

So, I changed my plans, diverted my route, and headed down to Preston, where we hung out, read our books and ate grapes for a while. Eventually, the Minx was shown to a bed and, at eight o'clock, I was thrown out (along with all the other visitors; it was nothing personal).

It was hot again, today, and although there were forecasts of thunderstorms, there was no sign of any such thing when I got home. So, I lit the fire pit, poured a glass of wine, and sat in the garden, catching up on my blog. I don't know how long I'd been writing - about half a bottle, I guess - when a gob of rain landed on the keyboard, followed by another.

I didn't want to go indoors, so I just moved my chair back into the porch and put my Glastonbury poncho 'round my shoulders, now that it was suddenly chilly. And then the action started: lightning flashes, and long low rumbles of thunder, amplified by the Lune Valley. I read a description of thunder once, that said it was like bowling balls being rolled across the wooden floors of heaven and that was *exactly* what it sounded like.

The rain was never heavy enough to put out the fire, which was pretty well established, and I think I could have sat in the porch all night, as long as the storm continued, but eventually it moved on and so I moved up to bed.