Cool and wet day in July

The view from my house across the Terminal Creek valley to Apodaca Ridge, which is shrouded with cloud blowing in off the Strait of Georgia.

From time to time we get strange weather days here on the west coast. Yesterday three dense tracks on thunderstorms flowed north from California bringing rain, thunder and lightning to our region. Summer thunderstorms are quite rare here; it is more common to get one or two in the winter when there is much more convection in the atmosphere. Nevertheless I returned home from an emotional day in the city and sat here on the covered porch looking out over Apodaca Mountain and Kwilakm/Mannion Bay below and watched as electricity flashed through the clouds. There was hardly any wind and the rain was light and persistent, getting heavier as a cell or two passed gently overhead.

This morning is grey, windy and wet. The forest and garden are drinking deeply and the wind is drying the roads. I awoke to the sounds of fog horns from the ships at anchor in far off English Bay, and the call of a Merlin getting some early morning hunting in.