Stormy weather

There was quite a storm here this afternoon, but I only saw the edges of it. I was driving back from Coolangatta (just over the Queensland border; had to run my Dad up there and bring his ute back) and dark clouds had been building up in the distance the whole way back. By the time I was only about 15 minutes from home, hail started falling. Not stopping to think, I turned off the normal road into a smaller one which is covered by trees much of the way, thinking I could park under one of them if the hail got really heavy. Five minutes along this road I realised the stupidity of this decision: driving under trees while there is lightning around is not clever, and nor is taking the long way home in a storm, on a road I'm unfamiliar with - a narrow winding lane with crumbling edges. When the rain got too heavy I pulled off the road and just sat there with the hazard lights flashing. I didn't think to take a photo until the storm had nearly gone:

Soon I was continuing along my merry way, but was stopped by a tree which had fallen across the road. I tried to lug the thing off by myself and couldn't do it, but two other vehicles and their 6 people arrived, and many hands make light work. Away I went again, but then there was another fallen tree and this one was leaning against power lines, so there was no alternative: I had to turn around and go back to the original road again.

Twenty minutes later I was nearly home, but again the road was blocked by a fallen tree. More reversing, another road, and then when I was just about on home soil, I met some very familiar-looking cows and calves trotting along. They live in the paddock next to the house here, so I rounded them up, put them back in the paddock, and finally drove in to the house. And the place looked rather different. The shed out the back had moved. Half of it was standing on its side:

The whole shed had been pushed over onto its back wall where it then split in two. I'm glad I wasn't here to hear it - all that tearing metal would have been scary. The poor dogs nearly went berserk when they saw me.

The power is back on again now, which means the water is back on again too (relying on an electric pump), which means the essentials of life have been restored: a cup of tea and a shower. Ahhh...

And the air is now cool, and the moon is now beautiful, and I always hated that shed :)