Two weeks ago I had 24 nice little chilli plants growing away nicely. I felt good. Tonight I have three slightly raddled chilli plants and 6 with no leaves and that is it. OK I gave 3 away, but the 10 that I planted out have been eaten and then used as part of a dust bath by Bridie the Bantam, Delenn, exile of the Grey Council and Muck and Brass - aka the Garden Vandal Gang. It's not as though they weren't protected by a barricade of sticks, flower pots and plastic netting. Little b@st@rds! And Bridie doesn't even share her eggs.
So to soothe my anger, I walked up to the vantage point where I can look south across the valley of the Couasnon and west towards the big city and north to the bad lands of the Sarthe. I used to be able to look at our house too, but a nasty little bungalow is being built in front of us, so the view that way is now sadly lacking. The swifts know that there is a storm around as the insects are flying lower, so they are flying lower too. There must have been 30 or so swooping across the village between us and the church - magnificent to watch. The swallows and martins were tucked away though, in case.
The clouds towards the east and Noyant were not looking friendly and there was a pretty constant low rubble of thunder in the air.
My favourite website, real time lightning, shows what it was like over that way.
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