Rain

This is after there was thunder, lightening and hail. 

We decided to do Ben Ledi from Brig o' Turk. The sign on the motorway said 'Yellow alert, heavy rain and flood warning' but the sun was in the sky and we were heading west so we laughed. 

We walked happily up the hill in brilliant sunshine, tea shirts and sun-glasses all the way. The waterproofs in our packs were only there to demonstrate our hill-awareness, our pretensions to being experienced hill-walkers, our vanity in desiring to be seen with big ruck-sacks. 

At the bealach we stopped for lunch and listened to the larks singing and the lambs bleating. 

On the way to Ben Ledi, about half way along the ridge I commented to R that I heard thunder. He stated categorically that it was the wind. I believed him. 

By the time we got to the trig the Western sky was 'threatening' (It might as well as have had 'you are doomed' in sky-written red letters). We decided to take the swiftest route back to the car down a heathery slope rather than bothering to walk all the way back to the track. 

Half way down the slope at about four thirty the show got started. Thunder, lightening and a sudden pelting down-pour had us stop and put on our pretentious water-proofs. Ten minutes later it started hailing. Big marble sized pieces of ice that stung as they hit the back of your neck and had layers in them. 

I picked one up and it had a cloudy layer of ice and a clear layer of ice and then another cloudy layer of ice. 

By the time we got back to the car we were soaked. Despite the water-proofs. 

The trip back was equally exciting. There was about ten minutes when I bit my tongue because a bloke driving a car on a road covered in two inches of water with hail smacking on the wind-screen fit to crack it does not need a back-seat driver. 

When we finally got out of the danger zone there were several swear words uttered. 

Home, showered, fed, glass of juice to rehydrate me the world should now be a simple place. 

So why is there a very scared crow in my spare room? 

(He's gone now, I opened the window very wide and encouraged him to use it. He only thumped into the glass once before finding the gap). 

It has been a very interesting day.