“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”  – Thomas Merton.

I was out in the field with Zinnia this morning firing a slingshot rubber fall out into the field. Zinnia is a princess, not really built for running too much (like border collies) especially in weather this hot.

So I got up early to take her up. Suddenly the wind began to shift and the sky darkens, and I looked up and I saw a storm coming politely but firmly down the road.

I kept thinking “landscape” all the way, I loved the way the trees framed the storm.

I took out my iPhone and opened my weather app, which has radar and tracks nearby storms and lightning. I saw my storm on the map, it was, said the app, two miles away and was bringing torrential rain, , thunder and lightning.

I went inside and turned off the computer, let Maria know what was coming, got the dogs in, made sure the car window were closed. I wish I had this app when I first moved to the country, those Canadian Howlers, we called them, s seem to come out of nowhere, and lightning always caught me by surprise, even demolishing a car engine once.

The storm arrived at 7:34, as predicted, dumped some heavy rain, grumbled and roared, then went right down the road.

I just checked my app again, and it says we are clear. I turned the computer on, went back to work and Zinnia is asleep at my feet, where she belongs.

I like this app, a year ago it alerted me to lightning just across the road, and I got Maria off of the roof in time. She was replacing some slate.

The blue dot below is Bedlam Farm.

Not much of the storm left. This morning, the line of thunderstorms was red and yellow and impressive. So far, the solar has pulled in 7.74 kilowatts of electricity.