In a way I should say - I refer to my last blog - what on earth is going on with our weather? Today I woke up to a white covering on the lawn - oooh I thought - snow! Nope it was hailstones....

You can see the hailstones with the mombretia

While I was taking some pictures of the hailstones, I noticed an orange flash below my window - there was a mombretia flowering in January!!!!!!!!!!! They normally flower in July/August and last through to October/November. So either it's just woken up or it hasn't gone to sleep yet!!!!
A mombretia is flowering in January!!!!

Then an incredible fall of hailstones started, and it lasted almost 10 minutes. I'm so glad I wasn't out in it - the stones were quite large and it would have hurt!!!

When it stopped, I braved the cold - just for you! - and took some pictures of the stones. The ground was covered with a good lot....

I braved the cold to take this picture!!!!

Then I took pictures of them on the coal bunker - as the sun doesn't touch the bunker this time of year - the stones stayed there, although they did melt a bit.

The amazing small balls of frozen water

Starting to melt....

I spoke to Mandi this evening and she said that she'd had not only hail, but heavy rain and then two tornados passed by!!!! Apparently the weather has been really strange this year. I know we Brits always seem to talk about the weather, but it's catching on in Turkey and other countries!!!!