Hailing White Stones out of a Black Sky

This afternoon, a sudden weather change brought a wall of cloud up out of Kangaroo Valley. That grey cloud wall met another black cloud just above Robertson, and bang, it was on for young and old.

My brother Brendan and I shut the windows and doors, and dragged under cover on the front verandah any tools and some picture rails which I had just painted. Just in time too.

Suddenly, the sound of hammering started.
Hail.
Large hails stones were not just falling
they were lashing the garden and the house roof.

The front yard turned white in moments.

I rushed out to Brendan's car, to retrieve my camera, and I suddenly realised how dangerous it is to try to run across hail stones, for once they pack down, it is like a bed of pure white ball bearings. I managed to walk back down the gentle slope in front of the house without slipping and falling over, but only by hanging on to a branch from a small tree in front of the house. That little sapling in the centre of the image
saved me from falling.

Here are some photos of the hail on the back deck.

And a zoomed image of the hail against the little step on the deck.
You can see the particle size, average 8mm in diameter,
but some as large as 12 mm.
Not huge, but a great hail storm, none the less..

And this is the Weather Bureau Radar Map
from Terry Hills (north Sydney)
The regular 128 Km Sydney Radar - from Appin
was not functioning.

You can judge the intensity of the storm.So much excitement from a 15 minute storm.

To celebrate the painting of the corridor
and the reproduction of dark green picture rails
(for which I did all the mitre cuts on the drop-saw)
I decided to celebrate with a glass of Absinthe.

I commented to Brendan that I didn't have any ice in the freezer,
and he laughed and said there heaps of it on the back deck.
And of course he was right.

So several moments later,
I was out scooping up the fresh "heavenly ice"
and adding the Absinthe
to create the perfect "Green Fairy".
A cocktail - served courtesy of the Great Bartender in the Sky!
How Cool is that?
Chilling out - now off to bed.