The Storm

A week ago Monday, we had the most terrific storm here. Not terrific as in amazing, but as in huge and loud and terrifying. I have been suffering with another ear infection (nearly £30 spent on antibiotics and ear drops in the last week and a bit!) and went home from work early. I had a headache and felt decidedly muzzy. Then, as I got off the bus, the sky that had been steadily darkening for the last half hour split apart and large, heavy drops of rain started to pelt down.

Happily I got home before the deluge really began, but suddenly there was a huge flash of lightning, and then the longest rumble of thunder I have ever heard. Now I just hate storms...they give me a particular kind of headache that makes me feel like I am on the edge of fainting clean away, and the thunder makes me jump. To make matters worse, poor Carl phoned from the train to say that a train line and signal had been hit by lightning, and while he was safe, he was going to be stuck on the train for a good while yet.

So, alone in the house, the storm raged on. I didn't want to have the television on, as when I was a little girl, my Dad always unplugged it at the first flash of lightning, in case the ariel got hit...and the advice has stayed with me! I retreated into the bathroom, the best place to hide because it has no windows! I had a long hot bath which made me feel a little better, but when I emerged, the storm was still roaring.

What else to do, but bake? Nothing too taxing because I really didn't feel like it, but something comforting and familiar, easy yet rewarding...scones! I can bake scones almost in my sleep, and just 30 minutes after I tied my apron on, I was curled up under a blanket sipping tea and nibbling on a scone. Bliss!

How do you hide from storms? Or are you braver than me, and one of those people who can see the beauty in them? I think that they awaken some kind of primitive fear inside me...I can imagine how a cave-lady must have felt! For all that we live in houses now, we are no less protected from the lightning!

The train line runs past the end of our garden, and after a while, I heard the trains begin to shunt past again, so I knew that it would not be too long before my lovely husband came home. Perhaps there is something good about storms after all- the feeling of when the storm has passed!