A huge storm is raging

A huge storm is raging outside.

The lightning is filling the sky as the sun sets, and the trees from the jungle seem to loom closer, bending in the sudden wind squalls. The rain is falling in torrents from dark sky and the noise from the combination of rain and thunder is deafening. 

The rain splashes on the ground and rebounds a foot into the air; air which smelts hot, wet and full of rotting vegetation.

The thunder either claps like a large brown paper bag bursting over head , or rumbles round the towering nimbus clouds.

And in the time it has taken me to type , the sun has set...................and now the lightning is filling the sky with bluey green flashes and the smell is reminiscent of fireworks.

I love the moments just before a storm breaks, when you know its coming, when those sudden fierce gusts of wind rattle windows, send leaves scurrying across the ground, and the strange smell in the air...of rain and heat and noise.

I love the moment when the first drops of rain fall on grass and everything smell green, or on hot roads and pavements when the air is filled with the smell of hot dust. 

I love the way the lightning fills the sky, distorting and changing images, or snakes down from the sky, searching for the ground, like a living being.

I love the rain, oh how I love the rain, soft and gentle, like a gentle falling mist, then hard and torrential, when it hurts to be in it, filing the ground, warm puddles to wiggle your toes in, watching it pouring off gutters and roof and the flickering reflections thrown up by the storm's light.

I'm off to sit outside and watch.