I love wild weather, in particular thunderstorms, but it seems that now I am all ready to get that elusive lightning shot, the storms always happen wherever I am not!

However last night, we were having a nice quiet Friday evening at home, keeping out of the cold, when all of a sudden I heard thunder!

Our older dog usually goes into a quivering mess when a storm is about to hit, but it seems he has now grown out of this…or gone too deaf to hear it….as he stayed asleep in his bed!

Thinking I was imaging things, I checked the radar, and it showed some heavy rain heading our way….but then it started to hail…..

Usually I worry that hail will do damage….after the famous hailstorm a few years back which we nearly got caught in…..but as we were both home safe and sound with the furkids, and our beloved cars were undercover, I plonked myself down with my camera to enjoy the show!

The hail stones weren’t big in size, but there were lots of them….so much so that I went to check our skylight to make sure it wasn’t being smashed, but all was fine.

The storm only lasted about 10 minutes but there was some fantastic lightning flashes and thunder…but I wasn’t able to capture one…it was all over too quickly!

But I did get plenty of pictures of the hail….it really looked like it had snowed!

I took this one through the window before the storm finished…

Hail

Miss Charlotte wasn’t really sure about this white stuff…and watched from the safety of “Dad’s” lap…

Watching

Once the worst passed over, I went out to check that everything was ok…the garden looked like it had snowed…

Hail in garden

It was about an inch thick on the far side of the deck….had to be very careful not to slip over…..

Pile of hail

Miss Charlotte wondered what this icy stuff was in the water bowl…Bill stayed inside, sensibly tucked up in his bed….

water bowl

It was so cold overnight, that there was still some hail in the garden when I let the dogs out in the morning!

A quiet Friday evening that suddenly wasn’t so peaceful….although in this city, you do get used to having crazy weather!