After the storm ...

I really wanted to take a storm photo. I went out, admittedly not just to take a photo, with my phone in my cagoule pocket this afternoon. I handed in stuff to the Oxfam shop - the official reason for going out in what had become a truly awful afternoon - and headed down to the West Bay. The wind was battering upriver, and as we reached the end of the bay and crossed the shore road, the rain increased in force until it was truly like someone hosing us down. Kilbride Road, along which we returned, was flooded in several places, water rushing down off the hill, pouring through gaps in garden walls, collecting in leaf-choked pools. All very interesting and photo-worthy - but my hands were so cold and wet that I couldn't have held my phone, let alone operate the camera. My waterproof trousers had given up at the knees, and I ran with water.

By the time we were halfway home, the rain had stopped. Five minutes from our door, we could see blue patches of sky. My hands dried, although they were still numb. The photo I ended up taking shows the last of the blackness over the hills to the north, and the pale blue creeping eastward from the left of the photo. The lights on the East Bay have come on, and the Western Ferries are running calmly - although they didn't go off, the Argyll Ferries were unable to run all afternoon.

My boots are still drying out ...