I had not long made a pot of one of my tea-blends experiments (today’s was named grotty weather Saturday blend: i scoop of Lea Valley tinned orange pekoe with one scoop of Lady Earl Grey from Steeps) when lo agus behold the most astonishing weather event unfolded.

I would term it a hail-rain-rain-hail event or even a Hail Our Rain moment. It arrived with the strangest ongoing rumbling throughout. Ever curious about the varieties in rain (I’ve convened with a lifetime of it and yes there is much variation in it) I took myself out during the preliminary hail stage. Three of my neighbours were transfixed watching it descend and bounce off the branches and ground, then the father arrived and they all departed under cover of brollies. The line of umbrellas were visible just above the front hedge as they trekked off.

Meanwhile behind the tree, a vicious bouldering action was happening with the clouds in a South West direction.

I ran out into the hailing rain and yep they stung on landing. Ran back in. Then spectated it from different windows and angles and then when I ventured out to pick up a book, the opera continued, with a strange pattern of repetition. The speed would increase and an extended period of hail would follow, then cease and back to rain.

It was extensive, it was indeed an opera of a weather event. The sound was incredible.