Red Alert

The day began with such promise,
dawn shadows danced on the wall,
but did it stay bright and sunny?
No, not at all.

Wild winds whipped white-cap waves
within the harbour wall,
made rain fly horizontal,
broke branches in its squall.

I made myself a false green grin
from debris off the ground.
It reached from forehead to chin
when I curved it round!

And yet, throughout this stormy day,
with drenching wind and rain,
spots of blue sky still appeared,
and a rainbow now and then.

The owner of our rented apartment called round late this afternoon to check all was well and that we were warm enough. (The apartment has no heating, but there are plenty of blankets.) It is unusually cool for this time of year. She told us the island is on Red Alert, but the winds should die down overnight.

We left it till afternoon to venture out and the winds were certainly wild. One shop lost the sun canopy from above its window, and there was a lot of debris blowing around - thankfully, nothing as bad as in February eight years ago, when Madeira suffered severe storm damage.