weather fireworks

We had the most spectacular thunderstorm Saturday evening lasting about three hours. We rarely get them and usually only briefly. Dark billowing clouds were moving in from the east and the north, and soon multiple forks of lightning crackled over the mountains and the sea providing us with dramatic entertainment over our late supper. We were reminded of the prairie storms that we always found so exciting in our youth.

But this excitement was quite unexpected and worrying with a roofing job underway! Husband grabbed tarps and stapler and climbed up on the roof to cover up the exposed areas, particularly around the skylights. Fortunately one of the roofers who lived not too far way showed up to help after seeing from some distance that it was now raining over here. Very relieved we were that we had no leaks while the storm grew fiercer with heavy showers (but no hail like in some other areas).

As it slowly moved westwards towards a most unusual burnt orange sky, the sound of the thunder changed into very long deep rumbles which reminded me of childhood stories from adults who said g-d was rolling barrels across the sky.

It was also the night of the fireworks competition on English Bay so you can imagine how majestic that was! Youngest daughter had planned to be there but wasn’t sure if it might be cancelled like many other events were. Hopefully she’ll post some of her photos of our weather fireworks on her blog and I’ll link to them for you to see. There are also some great ones here.

The heat and humidity are getting worse, as are the forest fires, with record-breaking temperatures up to 35C (95F) and not cooling much at night. I fare terribly in heat and we don’t have air conditioning so I am spending more time down on the first floor lazily reading, watching a wee bit of TV, napping and occasionally (like right now) using this ancient spare Mac which doesn’t have my photos and files. I should be writing up more of our travel memoirs but my brain doesn’t want to think that hard.

Two wonderful books that I’m reading right now: K.A. Laity’s UNIKIRJA, Dreambook and Ekkerhart Malotki’s KOKOPELLI, The Making of an Icon. I’m also rereading bits of a book that I finished recently: William Golding’s The Inheritors. I may try to write a bit about those sometime.

I feel sorry for the guys working so hard up on our roof but I’m impressed by their endurance… puts me to shame.

Another distraction: tomorrow afternoon our middle daughter and granddaughters arrive here from England, for a few weeks’ visit. We are all excited.

July 27, 2009 in Books, Canada and BC by Marja-Leena