Stormy weather...or maybe not

       

As usual the weather seems to have taken everyone by surprise -  first it's spring, then it's not.

Yesterday was one of those typically English days, sunshine and showers.

The morning was grey, nothing special but at least it was dry and the sun did manage to shine once in a while.  By 2pm the cloud cover was building and the tide on the river had gone out leaving it's usual combination of seaweed and sludge. The waders were having a high old time of it, standing patiently, eyes intent on the mud for the slightest movement.  It never ceases to amaze me what they will actually find, most of it far too small for the human eye to even see in the first place.

I managed to walk all of the dogs without actually getting wet, which was a a miracle in itself as the showers were becoming more frequent and having just arrived home it was with a sigh of relief that I finally closed the door behind me.

The cornflower blue that the sky often goes when the weather is interspersed with heavy showers was slowly becoming a squall of grey, each cloud tipped with the purest white, moving almost languidly across the expanse above me, the gaps of blue slowly being squeezed out to be replaced by angry, black thunder-heads.

Living by the river is a wonderful place to be and it's so easy to observe the conditions by watching it.  I'm lucky enough to have french windows in the bedroom and it's somewhere I always make a beeline for when the weather changes so dramatically.

Storms always come up the river, I have no idea why, maybe its something to do with the tides and moon but for whatever reason the sky on the other side of the river that afternoon was truly impressive.
Ten minutes later and it was as dark as it would have been at dusk.  The heavy, oppressive air hanging like a wall covering, still and so silent.

Watching in anticipation I was surprised to see the sky turn slowly back again to grey without so much of a hint of a flash of lightning or even a roll of distant thunder..........I guess you can't win them all, but I was disappointed with my grandstand view, not to have seen anything.

Of course the news later that evening confirmed there had been storms over various parts of Essex - just sadly not mine!