Liste! now the thunder’s rattling clymmynge sound

Campanula patula

Birch

Aspen

The weather forecast promised a thunderstorm for today, with some serious lightning, rain, and wind. Here in Helsinki region I didn't notice anything like that, but elsewhere Finland got a lot of thunder and storm: over 25,000 lightning bolts and winds up to 30 m/s.

I commuted by bicycle today, and will do so also tomorrow. Since the beginning of May I have got 1061 km on bicycle, which is quite a lot more than last year, despite the bicycle being broken for half a week. But that isn't much, a colleague has got 2444 km so far.

(Posting title is from the poem An Excelente Balade of Charitie by Thomas Chatterton.)

Cough during applause

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Lights

What a surprise! Thunder and lightning in December in Finland? This is very, very rare.

Just as I was preparing dinner for the family, a lightning bolt hit close, to a hill about 100 m away, without any advance warning... It seemed that the sound came before the flash that lighted up the hillside. Maybe there is a tree there that got the hit. It is too dark to go and have a look.

After dinner we went to a concert where our daughter played the piano. She had also made a Christmas greeting card to her piano teacher, for which she had written several poems, and the piano teacher read one of these poems in the introductory speech for the concert. The poem had the touch of a poet in the making...

But I had a bit of trouble in the concert as the cough bothers me still. It was occasionally hard to keep silent and not cough. Luckily most of the pieces were short, and I coughed when it was time for applause.

Caught in a thunderstorm

Myyrmäki

Louhela marsh

Louhela marsh

Rain front

Dark clouds above

This morning I looked carefully at the weather forecasts and weather radars, and thought that there would be some time until the rain front would get here. So I went for a bicycle ride.

However, the rain arrived - together with thunder and lightning - when I was quite a distance from home. I thought it would pass quite soon, but I kept on getting more and more wet.

In the end it was raining so hard that I had to spit out every few seconds the water that got into the mouth when inhaling. And at home I had to pour water away from the bicycle shoes.

Well, at least the rain wasn't too cold; it was refreshing, a warm summer shower.