One Day One World Project: 02:00 – 03:00

nature’s fury

Thunder crashes through my dreams like a sledge-hammer, startling me into wakefulness. It growls like a caged-in lion pacing, it bangs furiously and then grumbles away, sometimes near, sometimes far. The lightning strikes and I start counting; one thousand, two thousand… the gods come tumbling out of their beds above my head shattering the stillness of the air, deafening me, wakening the entire neighbourhood.

Lightning flickers around the edge of the town, circling dangerously close, lighting up roofs and chimneys then forking down to the earth. So bright I can see it with my eyes closed. Red, yellow on the insides of my eye-lids. Afraid to open them in case the retina is damaged by the flash. So vivid that night becomes day.

Then the rain starts; fat, heavy drops falling slowly, hesitantly onto the still warm tarmac and dry tiles. The hissing begins; raindrops steadily increasing in pace, straight as stair-rods, rapidly filling the gutters, turning the road into a river, gurgling down the fall-pipes and creating fog above the river. The smell of rain in the thick air. It stops. It starts. It stops.

Everything is still. The air is so heavy. Listening, holding its breath. In case the fury returns.

(Storms over the UK – July 2014)

Lisa of the blog NorthWest Frame of Mind has decided to run a different project over the next 24 weeks. To try to show what is happening in different parts of the world (if you all join in) at a particular time of day. If you would like to participate you have until next Saturday midnight to post a photo or write about what is happening in your part of the world.   This week is between 02:00 – 03:00.  I hope you’ll join in! See links for more details.

(Photo source: Mark Kidsley Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.)

Published by

Heyjude

I have lived in the UK for most of my life, but when young I definitely had wanderlust and even ended up living in South Africa for several years which was a wonderful experience. I now look forward to a long and leisurely retirement doing what I like most - gardening, photography, walking and travelling.

41 thoughts on “One Day One World Project: 02:00 – 03:00”

  1. Wonderfully told Jude, your description of the storm is brilliant. Even in France we had a couple of days of rain and thunder… xx

      1. I did not realize she started over. I must slip over and say Halloooo !

  4. Simply beautiful prose describing the storm… and how convenient of it to put on a show for your 2-3 am post! lol Truly this is a wonderful post.

    1. Thank you FB – for some reason you ended up in my spam folder. Never mind. I have rescued you. I need something to happen during the next couple of hours!

  6. Wow! – that is the most vivid description of a thunderstorm I’ve ever read! “Red, yellow on the insides of my eye-lids. Afraid to open them in case the retina is damaged by the flash” – how can anyone sleep when there’s a thunderstorm going on out there?!!

    1. It was a SERIOUS thunderstorm Jo. Haven’t seen or heard one like that for years! I almost leaped out of bed at the first boom!

Comments are closed.