Already it was warming up, and the afternoon promised to be hot.  I still enjoy the heat but prefer to be sitting somewhere with a cool drink rather exerting myself.  However, I had made sufficient progress with the salads, so I could now turn my attention to the flowers.  There would be time to do the dead heading before lunch, and afterwards I could take my ease and enjoy the results of the morning’s hard work.

It was not to be.  I had been sitting outside for barely half an hour when the sky darkened, and the sound of distant thunder announced the arrival of a thunderstorm.  There was not much chance it would pass us by, so I retreated inside the cottage, where I was shortly joined by Holmes.  We stood by the bedroom window, watching the lightening illuminate the fields in the distance.

“A spectacular show,” Holmes said.

“Indeed, but one I am grateful to be watching from indoors,” I replied.