There are so many beautiful plants here in the Morvan, stunning landscapes and sometimes dramatic weather – as we discovered yesterday.

Here are a few supersized hailstones from one of the storms that reined down on us yesterday evening in France. It was quite an experience, I imagine similar to being trapped infront of a tennis ball practise machine that has been loaded with golfballs and turned on the fastest, hardest setting. Protected behind double glazing and shutters during such a storm was quite entertaining but our car did not fair well. It now sports hundreds of substantial dents and drew incredulous glances as we cruised by a local market today.

Many trees lost boughs and branches. Many smaller plants have been snapped in two or punctured cleanly by the hail. It did taste very refreshing though and in a way was welcome relief from the soaring temperatures.

I heard that recent weather has been quite disastrous for wine producers of the Burgany region. Now I can empathise when I hear of “hail” spoiling crops.