Floods of The Haylings riverside land often followed rain storms
Floods of The Haylings riverside land often followed rain storms

Thunder storm flooding the storm drain and huge hailstones falling on The Lady, newly-varnished, and sad news of June’s father dying

A day that started hot but clouded over after lunch until a great storm broke in the evening. Today I had managed to close the sliding roof on ‘The Lady’ and had painted the fore cabin roof and was in the middle of the sliding roof when the storm started. A good wind and then lightning, thunder and driving rain from the west. Then very large hailstones of a size that, whilst sheltering in The Lady, I was fearful that they might break the glass windows. A comprehensive job then, on my wet paint!

 Old Bill had cleared out the storm drain this morning, and retrieved the last of the pieces of the old cooker that I had discarded there. The storm water rose sharply out of it, cascading into the river. This afternoon, Debbie performed her first ballet at the St Neots Priory Centre in close heat and just lasted out the four hours before becoming too fretful. Daniel is allowed to play with his home computer again after a week’s withdrawal and his manners are the better for the break. June phoned today and gave me the bad news that her father has died at Peterborough Hospital following his stroke and heart attack. She will now be off work for Monday and Tuesday to make the funeral arrangements and console her mother. I am a little worried about the arrangements to cover her for personnel responsibilities with Job Offers a particular problem. The news was still preoccupied with the British Airways helicopter crash within two miles of the Scilly Islands.