Thursday 30 April 2009

The mother of all hail storms unsettles the troops


Last night we had the most violent hail storm I've ever known. Large lumps of ice the size of marbles hurtled down from the sky for twenty minutes without pause. The noise was incredible and we had to shout above it in the kitchen to make ourselves heard. The lightning display and acoustics that went with it were positively biblical in their proportions. We had thought that the two boyz had recovered from the violence of the robbery but the sound of the hail cracking against the roof must have reminded them of the sound of gunfire. Digby, who at the best of times is hardly the bravest of dogs started to tremble all over and hid under my chair. Wilf, who until recently was quite unperturbable and took thunder and loud noises in his stride simply came and lay across my feet with his paws covering his eyes. We turned up the sound system and carried on as if we weren't aware of what was going on so that they would calm down.

Today has dawned clear and fair.We went a walk to a little village nearby called Saragano without a cloud to be seen in the sky. The two boyz seem to be fully recovered from their nervousness and enjoyed the outing in the car. The dog vehicle is now two and a half years old. I wonder whether anyone will ever buy it from us ? There doesn't seem to be a vacuum cleaner strong enought to remove the sand , vegetation or worse dragged in by the pups.
The Italian government has said in an official statement that the country has nothing to fear from swine flu. Now I know it's serious.

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