"Jesus! Stop it raining!"

The calm before the storm ...

It's Sunday, to some it's the day of rest, to others it's the Sabbath, to us it's the day we find somewhere interesting to take the dog for a walk.

After last weeks expedition to look at a World War 2 gun emplacement, we decided that this week we'd head across the border into Suffolk and go and see what's down the road signposted 'Brantham Church', other than a church that is ... 1st problem was there was nowhere near the church to park the car (Note to vicars and the like, if you want people to come to your church, ensure there's adequate parking - it's always a help) so we had to park on a lay-by 2 or 3 minutes walk from the church - this eventually turned out to be a good thing, and not a problem.

After heading off down the wrong path and almost ending up in someone's back garden, we discovered the correct path and headed down towards the train tracks and eventually the river. It was half-way down the path, that the wind starting blowing at what felt like 60mph! At first the girls quite enjoyed, especially when they realised that the wind was coming from behind them so if they ran they'd go just that bit faster ... (Or so it seemed). Jackson the dog liked it as well - I'm guessing it wasn't unlike sticking his head out of a moving car window ...

We crossed the bridge over the railway track, and continued to head down towards the river. The wind had died down a little, and we took the opportunity to explore the remains of an old building before crossing back over the bridge. It was at this point I realised that if we kept following the path round we'd end up back at the road where the car was - so off we went, Jackson running on ahead of us, and Bethany jumping in every puddle she found.

It was whilst walking down this road, and approximately 1/2 mile from the car that the heavens opened, and it poured down with rain. A little bit of rain doesn't normally bother us, the girls have hoods and welly boots so they don't care, but today we had the rain being blown in the what felt like 60mph wind ... And as we had moved round on the path, the wind was no longer behind us but instead straight into the side of us ...

And then it started hailing ...

Bethany was getting quite vocal at this point, yelling at the top of her voice, "JESUS!! Stop it raining ...!". Now I was about to tell her off but I then realised she was telling Jesus to stop the rain, and not, at the age of 5, taking His name in vain ... Every time the rain or wind slowed slightly, she'd say how He's listening, only to get most irate when it all picked up again.

We eventually made it back to the car. My jeans had changed from blue to black, and my brown leather jacket didn't really provide the best of cover. The girls didn't fare too badly, their hoods keeping the worst off (Though Bethany has loads of hair, so that got fairly wet), but their coats and jeans were soaked through. Jackson, looked like a drowned rat ...



Needless to say that when we got home, it had stopped raining.

The girls went straight into the bath, I put the kettle on, Jackson shook himself and was then towel dried, and all was right in the world.

Though there is a 5 year old most annoyed with Jesus for getting her wet ...