Armageddon

A hot, humid day which I tried spending n the shade on the road alongside our property, cutting back our 10-*metre-high hedge, or at least as much as I could reach from the ground. It's an annual battle and one I hate, but it has reached the point again where turning out of our drive onto the road is becoming dangerous.

Around 16:30 the now almost daily dark thunderstorms started to appear, so I quickly packed up all the gear into the car and ended the work. 99% was done and was therefore quite pleased.

And then drinking a cup of tea indoors......... the heavens opened and within seconds started throwing down 2.5 cm (1") size hailstorms with such fury and with a strong wind that the stones were flying around in all directions. There was absolutely nothing else to do than watch the show. The noise was so loud it was almost impossible to talk.

I guess it lasted about 10 minutes. I have personally never seen anything like the aftermath. The ground was a carpet made up of a mixture of heavy snow/hail/slush and shredded leaves and flowers  At first glance couldn't see nay damage to roof, windows or PV panels. All flower pots, hanging baskets and even the troughs of  geraniums which were under roof, were totally shredded. Deciduous trees must have lost at least half their leaves. The satellite TV wasn't getting a signal, but that was the least of our problems, as we could go online for main TV stations.

The horses stayed outside during the storm as the noise of the hail on their tin roof stable would have been unbearable. Don't seem to have suffered any brain damage, possibly the pummelling on their skin was like a good massage. But on rounding them up, did find a huge spruce, belonging to us on the other side of our stream, had crashed onto our electricity line but as we now have a new thick line it snapped off the top 4 metres or so of the tree which then landed within 2 metres of my two bee hives!

I actually did more video footage than still photos so don't have good choice of photos but some in extras. The main photo was taken an hour or more after the storm.