Three hot days and a thunderstorm

Or so goes the traditional English summer.

After the hot weekend, and a couple of dull days, the weather brightened up so I could take Karen out, first to the exhibition of Han grave goods at the Fitz (weds), then to the Crown and Castle for lunch (Thu) where we sat out on the terrace until the haze came up and the wind strengthened (as we were moving on to coffee), and again on Friday, when Karen's mother came to visit and we went out for lunch, and again sat outside at the Plough at Coton.

But then Saturday...

It sprinkled a bit around 10-ish when I wandered out to do a bit of shopping, and a bit heavier burst after I got back; and it looked fair and the radar tracking the weather suggesting it would miss us, so I headed off to the Plough at Fen Ditton for the CAMDUG meet-up. And for a while thereafter, we sat and chatted out on the riverbank in the sun -- until suddenly all went dark.

We got inside ahead of the rain, which then tipped down in stair rods with hail for an extended period, before brightening up.

So then time to cycle home again; and by the time I got past the Elizabeth Way bridge, it has started sprinkling, and carried on that way until I had gone through Cambridge -- at which point the heavens opened again, so it was just head down and pedal, being glad of just having silk shirt and lycra shorts, which were reasonably comfortable when saturated, even though the rain was now cold (unlike a couple of weeks ago when I got similarly caught in torrential rain on the way home from work). Fortunately I got home ahead of the encore with hail.

This morning, looking at how much the pond had been refilled, it seemed like we'd had well over an inch of rain in total.