out of the blue...

We get loads of thunderstorms here but they nearly always take me by surprise! They aren't always mentioned on the forecast as they sometimes only last a few minutes.
I hate the ones that start at 3am and scare you half to death as you awaken from a peaceful slumber to a massive thunderbolt and wonder what on earth is going on.
Today was very wet but not particularly warm or oppressive so I was not expecting a thunderstorm then suddenly as I am sat on the sofa watching torchwood (on BBC America - wanted to see what all of the hype was about! It's pretty weird and not that well acted but then I'm not the biggest Doctor Who fan... Well actually I can't stand Doctor Who so who am I to pass judgement on Torchwood!) when suddenly I spot a lightning bolt out of the corner of my eye (my favourite feature of this house is the 2 height entranceway with the big window over the door so when I am sat in the living room I can see the sky outside) followed by a huge thunder bolt right over the house. And I mean, it was a boom! Jeremy is going to bed really early (well 9pm) whilst he is fighting the colitis (so I found out this flare up is really bad because he can't take his long term maintenance meds after the cancer last year. Ironic that he only had 2 or 3 days off sick with the cancer but 2 weeks off so far with the colitis) so I was left on my own to watch the thunderstorm. You'd think I would be used to them now but sometimes you really do feel like they are just over the house and will strike anytime. They are amazing though... The lightning lights up the whole sky and sometimes you get to see proper sky to ground forks! And I have never checked the weather updates so much before in my life (though I am not as obsessed with the forecasts as Jeremy is - he will tell you exactly what time the rain or snow is due and how much to expect! Nerd!)

On a different note entirely, it's spring clean up time... In Portage, over the next 4 weeks, the waste management trucks are driving round picking up large items of rubbish which you can just leave outside your house. So the roads are lined with sofas, chairs and all sorts of crap! One house has built a wall of boxes (they must have done some serious filing over the years!) along their front yard. It's quite a sight and made worse by the pilfering and rain. I love that the roads around here are wide and tree lined with houses set back off the road to add to the feeling of space so I am looking forward to the garbage being picked up and the trees bursting with green leaves over the next few weeks!

Talking of rain, it rained today. It's been cool but sunny for days. I know because I've had a bag of lawn fertiliser sitting in the garage for 2 weeks as I have been waiting for rain (the plan was to spread it and then have the rain wash it into the ground). But unlike Manchester where it just seems to rain all day and is grey all the time, here there is so much space that you can actually see the sky without looking up. Back in Manchester, as I drove down the busy A56 to home, all I could see ahead was traffic, tall buildings around me and a small patch of sky above me. Here it seems like a grey sky is unusual. Even today when my neighbour commented that it was an awful day for weather (seriously?! She needs to spend a week in Manchester) it was dry and warm enough for a trip to the park this morning and just as the forecast had predicted, it rained at 2pm (full on big fat rain drops that bounce off the pavement - just as I was leaving the mall with Charlotte which made for a fun dash to the car and "Mummy my arms are wet!") and then a few hours later the sky had cleared. Not too bad really. Not like "that fine rain that soaks you through" (Peter Kay).

Well it's midnight and I hear the rumbling of thunder so I had best say goodnight and try to get some sleep.