19th June 2019 A fierce thunderstorm!

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Wednesday 19th 61-77F, heavy overcast with continuous thunder and heavy showers. Neither forecast service mentions this. Both offer only dry, sunny periods. However: The Head Gardener's soil scoop has turned up. So we can now look forwards to fine weather until the next crisis. Or not. It reached 77F again this afternoon. As I rode to the shops it was breezy but still felt like a sauna. 7 miles.

Raising the verge from wildlife corridor to luxuriant.

At five pm a black cloud came over with incredibly fierce gusts, continuous lightning and tremendous local thunder claps. This was quickly followed by torrential rain as it turned almost to night. The weird wind moved a lot of stuff along the ground but left far more obviously vulnerable stuff nearby completely alone.

I went over to the window to look out and there was an almighty bang! Some of this thunder really hurt my ears!

A rusty, iron cockerel on a private wind vane was glowing brilliantly white against the darkened landscape. It is normally fully hidden from our view by a large, intervening tree. I shan't be able to check it until I go for a walk tomorrow. I'm certainly not going outside tonight with these random claps of thunder.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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