Nature, Hail And The Siren.

Two major hailstorms within a week...

Yesterday afternoon I was in Deutsch Schützen and on my way back home. Having been inside most of the afternoon, I hadn't seen this storm brewing and was rather surprised to see our Eisenberg on the horizon ahead with a really ominous sky hanging over it.

As I had parked across from the local shop, I quickly dashed inside to get a lotto ticket and then proceeded to drive back home to Eisenberg with slightly more speed than normal. The closer I got, the more sickly green the heavens looked, streaked with a dash of lightning on the peripheral. Scary stuff reminiscent of Independence Day

Strange how those type of skies seem more apt for an African storm, but now, the storms seem to be getting as severe as we've had them in South Africa. I parked our car undercover and found that Bob hadn't even realized a storm was brewing. Before you wonder about that, let me say that often the sky in front of our house is dark and angry while the one behind it seems blue and cheerful. I almost felt like his drill sergeant as I merely shouted:

"Bob, a big storm is about to break. Hail maybe as well."

like a well rehearsed duo, we unplugged all our electrical stuff and sat waiting.

About ten minutes later and then it was all over, but we had a deluge of muddy water careering down the lane. It seems that it was bad everywhere because the village Siren was sounded.

Bob was rather excited to hear it. He knew there wouldn't be a fire. Heavy rain might mean pumping out a cellar or clearing a road. I barely managed to wave a goodbye at him when he dashed out the house clad in his fireman's greens, at 5.45 pm. Supper had long gone cold when he got home at 9.45 pm.

At the entrance to our village, a field has been planted with an unsuitable ( for rainy season ) crop and with no natural border in an attempt to garner maximum yields. Well when it rains hard, a lot of the soil gets washed away. The result was a few feet of mud all over the main road. Bob started to tell me how he was seconded to re-direct traffic in a oh-my-god-what-next sort of voice. All sombre and so on...

" Oh Bob, don't try to bamboozle me...you loved directing traffic and waving your shiny wand about! "

and of course he couldn't keep the smile from of his voice. Last night Bob got a taste of waving the lit up Stop & Go sign at motorists while clad in a fireman's jacket and has lived out another one of his childhood dreams...

Heavy storms and hail are awful but they are a reminder from Mother Nature that we need to take care of our planet.

Biggi