Edge of the Cyclone

The wind is whipping round the cottage causing the aluminium drain pipes to make strange thrumming noises like a deep double-bass. There is the occasional crack from the roof.  Hopefully the new tiles can stand the gusts.

I've been up to the house and checked that windows and shutters are secure and looked anxiously at piles of loose planks and bits of plasterboard on the veranda. They will have to look after themselves.

Patches of rain rush in and rush out again in between scudding clouds with rose-pink linings from the late afternoon sun.

A blackbird is singing lustily from the brambles.

I can hear the background "aaaaah  aaaaah aaah" from the sodden rugby crowd at Twickenham on the TV downstairs.  Tod is nursing a cold.

People are nervously posting on the French forums that tonight's cyclone will hit the Gironde and Charente coasts with winds of 150 kilometres an hour.  The storm will then turn north.

We are slightly to the south and east, so the brunt of it should pass us by. Even so, we are in for a noisy night of vibrating drain pipes.