1 EAGLETON NOTES: Les Orages

.

.

Sunday 31 August 2008

Les Orages

How quickly change can happen. After my posting yesterday on a hot afternoon, the haze lifted, the blue sky returned and the evening was very pleasant. Around midnight bed beckoned. I opened the windows (closed earlier to keep out the evening flies looking for a home for the night) and, as I did so, I noticed lightning far away to the south west. Meteo France had been promising for many days les orages for last night. The promise was fulfilled.

Lightning towards Angouleme to the south west

At about 0130 I was woken by the storm having moved much closer, a wind was getting up, things were clattering around the house and the sky was constantly illuminated by sheets of lightning from afar. They would not be afar for long. I went back to sleep.

I was woken again by a light so bright that I thought it was a dream and that my eyes had been burned out. I was facing into the room not towards the window but the lightning was so bright that even keeping my eyes closed did not remove the discomfort of the brilliance of the frequent and prolonged display of pyrotechnics. By this time the rain had started and as the wind was beating the rain onto the window. I had, naturally, closed it. I had not, however, closed the shutters. So, as the storm raged, I put my head under the covers and lethewards returned. When I awoke (around 0500 I think) the storm had passed over but could still be seen and heard as it headed towards the unfortunate people of Limoges. How many of them would wake this morning to burned out microchips?

So at 0730 the morning is sullen and, to me, the air hangs heavily. There are lots of jobs to be done indoors today: books to be read; blogs to be written; computers to be mended. The list is endless. But first there is more Earl Grey to be drunk.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comment moderation is activated 14 days after the post to minimise unwanted comments and, hopefully, make sure that I see and reply to wanted comments.