Cloudbursts and thunder

Cloudy today, with occasional rain. Clare went to her study group in Penarth after breakfast, and I got to work on next week's Morning Prayer, writing a reflection, recording this and the Office, editing them into one. There was fish pie mix in the fridge for lunch and it inspired me to make a paella which I've not done for a while. I was pleased with the result and so was Clare. 

I continued with making the video slide show after we'd eaten, and it took me longer than I expected, as I needed to find some fresh images to use for an Easter Week video. It was four by the time I uploaded it to YouTube, and went out for a walk. For the first time this year a group of more than a dozen swifts were swirling in the sky over the river. I suspect they may have arrived just in the past few days. A marvellous moving sight to see so many together in one place, despite them being on the endangered red list in Britain after a 60% species loss in the past 25 years. Just as I spotted them, light rainfall started. As I headed for home it turned into a downpour accompanied by thunder and lightning which soaked my top jacket. 

Then, an early supper, so that I could go to the Eucharist at St Catherine's. It was a sung service with eight in the choir and seven in the congregation. Not what I'd prefer, and evidently not what the remainder of the congregation were willing to turn out for. There was a said Eucharist at St David's Caerau, but that would have taken another hour out of the evening in order to attend. While we were in church there was another downpour, then it rained all the way home, and another top jacket and my trousers got soaked through.

Once I'd changed into a dry pair of trousers, I watched the Semana Santa evening procession live stream from Malaga on my Chromebook for a while. It was raining there earlier today. I was pleased to identify a few familiar streets through which the procession passed with the aid of a map. Then I watched an episode of 'Cold Summer', in which fictional events intersected with the grim reality of an anti-mafia prosecutor in Sicily Giuseppe Falcone, assassinated by those he sought to bring to justice. The original film footage from the news at that time, crafted into the story, with the reaction of Apulian law officers to the news. And that was it, time for bed. How fast the days fly by.