I don't know what the temperature was today, but it was hot....darn hot! And as I sit here writing this at almost 9.30pm, according to reports, it is still 22 degrees Celsius (an on-line converter tells me that is about 72 degrees Fahrenheit for all of you overseas peeps and I'm guessing that today would have been up around 95-100....how did I do with that conversion??).
So in great Queensland tradition, a hot day usually means a thunderstorm in the evening. and true to form that is exactly what we got!
So severe was the storm that it cast an eerie glow around just before it hit. And when it hit, it was wild. Winds were lashing at trees, rain was drifting in sheets, thunder roared and lightning flashed across the sky. There was no hail here although a short way away there was. We must have just missed out! When you get a lot of summer storms, you kinda get used to them and learn to enjoy them but tonight's was rather scary.
Despite all of the menacing performance, we thought that we'd missed most of the damage....until we went up the back yard and saw this.........
Ooooops! Our beloved Grevillea Honey Gem that attracts all of the native birds decided to do a back flip into the neighbour's yard, with the help of massive winds! 
We weren't the only ones. Many people lost trees and my bestie had one land across her street, effectively trapping everyone in. There was also a mass loss of power and we had a few family and friends here for dinner (somehow we managed to keep power, thank goodness!). Storm refugees, they called themselves! So tomorrow, Dear Husband is taking the morning off work to chain saw our tree into bits and take to the dump. :( Goodbye sweet native bird visitors!
If you are reading this and live nearby, I hope that you managed to stay safe and dry! I love storms, but not that kind!
