Whacky weather

The weather has been most peculiar this last couple of days, as today's post illustrates. Periods of delightfully warm sunshine, almost worthy of July, have been followed by apocalyptic deluges, especially last night, whose consequences are shown above. Between 6pm and 7pm, after a very successful day of attracting punters to the Oxfordshire Artweeks exhibition at Shipton-on-Cherwell's little church, we were trapped like Captain Scott's Polar party by lightning, thunder and a tremendous machine-gunning of hail.

The white stuff was still lying around in sheltered or shady spots this morning, showing how relatively cold it must have been overnight. I scooped up this glassful and briefly pondered creating a modest ice-house.  I've also uploaded these two film clips I made back at the church, the first videos I've included here for ages.  I know that they don't work on all computers/phones etc but I hope they come out OK on yours.

The 'whacky' bit referred to in my headline is that, by contrast, yesterday (the Peacock) and today (the Speckled Wood), have had some idyllic spells of the kind which bring out butterflies. I'm hoping that things will settle down enough for me to light the moth trap this evening after two dark nights. Fingers crossed.