Storm

The people who predict weather have been all atwitter, going on about this big storm that is supposedly about to descend on the South Island. The supermarkets were jammed with panicky shoppers yesterday. There were news reports of stores running out of bread and firewood. "It's going to be huge," they said.

But this morning the sun was shining brightly. We went to the farmers' market and then to the park where we met a friend. We were squinting in the sunshine, enjoying the beautiful morning, idly pushing our kids on the swings. It seemed that once again, the weathermen had got it wrong.

But then, not long after we got home, it started to look a bit gray and dark outside.

And then it got more gray. And more dark.

And look out the window now: it's coming!

This is a rapidly changing situation. In the time it took me to see these clouds, decide to do a blog post, find the camera, snap a photo, upload the photo to the computer, and then log into Blogger (in other words, about a minute and a half), the sky had opened up! Suddenly, there was hail pounding our rooftop and the grass was turning white.

We're hunkering down. This could be a big one.