A LULL IN THE STORM

It started raining gently at about three this morning. I know because the Doberman woofed a bit, then landed on the bed. She is not bothered by crashing thunder but the wind rustling in the trees or rain falling scares her witless. The real crash-bang storm started at about eight.

We went down to the river during a break in the storm to see what the ducks were doing. They were all in a row with their heads tucked under their wings. I call that uncooperative. There were some geese about, however, and here they are.

The weather "broke" this year 18 days ahead of schedule. Normally, like clockwork, this takes place on the 15th of August, give or take a day or two. This is also the biggest holiday of the year in Italy when everything snaps shut.

It used to be that the whole of Italy snapped shut for the entire month of August, but no longer. About half those who take holidays take them the first two weeks on the month and the other half the second two weeks. It is no time, I can tell you, to need an electrician, a plumber or any other tradesman. It is certainly no time to break a leg, acquire a toothache or to get sick.

I really hate blipping this late but the server has been down all day. I'm doing this in a hurry because the sky is still rumbling. I have another pic in bad taste to add to this but will do it later.

Ok, here it is. It's bad of me, I know, to take these pictures. There were a few mild objections to my use of a woman's rear end as a secondary pic yesterday but I didn't show her face. I wouldn't do that. I have not seen any CCTV cameras in the streets here but I understand people in the UK can expect to be photographed as many as 400 times per day. Privacy is beginning to be a luxury of the past. Goodness knows, I had my pic taken more than once yesterday as I scoffed a sandwich in a sidewalk cafe. Anyway, I quite liked this picture of a guy zonked out on a damp park bench, sleeping it off. In all my years in Italy, this is the first drunk I have seen. He was wearing a gold watch, he had a marsupio (bum bag) under his shirt, his sneakers were new and he was not shabbily dressed. I think he did have a very bad headache. Hangover.