Your blog brought back memories of gardening in Springtime on the highveld, whilst the summer rains were always welcome (nothing like the smell of approaching rain after the long dry winter), the heartache that followed the heavy storms was wrenching when surveying the new planted garden smashed to bits and surrounded by hailstones. I remember one year we had invested in standard roses and the storm was so bad it ripped the complete head of a rose bush off its stem.

When I was new to things South African, many years ago now, I thought coming from England I knew all about rain but having arrived at the end of May, had come through my first dry winter, and as the season changed later in the year was treated to an awe inspiring storm one afternoon whilst at work. I had never seen rain like it and my boss indulged my time-wasting wonderment as I stood at a window watching it pour down and of course hail down too. It transpired I had witnessed a really bad storm, factory windows were smashed, trees were stripped, birds were killed and fell from trees, cars were so badly damaged beyond panel-beating.

Yes, the weather has a unique power over us all and those of us who dwell in gentler climes can indeed be thankful we don't live in a monsoon region. Right now, Ibiza is hot and dry, and vulnerable to forest fires as the little island is packed with pine trees that can explode in a fire and send sparks everywhere to rapidly spread the dreaded danger, so we keep our fingers crossed that the island will get through this summer without more fires. I miss our garden, and other things, but the choice to live in an apartment rather than in 'el campo' I think was wise at this stage of our lives, it is noisy though (traffic - we are in town), but I quite enjoy other sounds of the Spanish in their daily lives.

Be well.

Trish

Hi and 'Thank you' for that post.  We saw the same clip of the hail.. it was unreal. We felt terrible for the folks that were caught in it.  Personally I detest winter..and this past winter was 'A Winter from Hell' at least in our part of Ontario.  Have a nice weekend.. Cheers Nancy.