After clearing storm debris we took it easy. Our eldest had collected his girlfriend from the station in Wavre and later took her to the park in Tervuren. The missus made fishburgers for an early dinner before the youngsters left again for station and home. A lovely little Holly Blue butterfly paid a visit as well.
Holly Blue - Azuré des nerpruns - Boomblauwtje
The storm made me think of the tented camps at Waterloo, part of the annual reenactment scheduled for this weekend. I checked and read that due to the extreme heat this year's commemoration had been cancelled on safety grounds by the local council. So thankfully no camps either, to be destroyed by the storm - I'm sure the reenactors will have counted themselves lucky after all.
Since the bicentenary of the battle (which took place on 18 June 1815) the reenactments and camps are no longer free (I trust the participating reenactors get a share of ticket sales) but the show is more extensive than before. I do miss the conviviality and closeness of the smaller events of yesteryear but If you've never been it's very much recommended. Pictures here are from 2005, when it was also pretty warm (as can be seen in the photo of British infantry in their red woollen uniforms).
Cheerful English officer above to Belgian TV crew: "I'm the officer in charge of cheese! Fromage y'know?"
After days of tropical heat, a thunderstorm arrived in the middle of the night. A strong and impressive one. We got up to look at it for awhile - there was so much lightning it looked like a strobe light, the noise was loud and the house got pelted by branches and leaves broken off violently shaking trees. Which we found in the garden the next morning, plus a few small bits that got inside before we got the windows closed.
I think it looked worse than it was - it took me an hour to get debris off the roof while the missus made good progress in the garden. And it could have been worse - the electricity company was fixing power lines on the other side of the block when I went out for croissants, and there was a man on the chaussée piling up torn-off branches as thick as my arm. Not to mention the devastation shown on the evening news...
For father's day our eldest and self went bowling in Braine l'Alleud where they have a good alley with vital airco to boot. My son started off knocking down all 10 pins or none at all before settling into a haphazard performance like my own. The Bowling Factory charges per game per person (where we're used to paying by the hour) but that didn't stop us from playing five games at a fairly steady clip. Son beat father with three games to two and a large advantage in total points.
We had a reasonably decent burger in the restaurant which was also kitted out in a mock-industrial decor to fit the Factory name.
After running errands in the morning and the missus being energetic in the garden, we settled down once more in the heat. Where the neighbouring trees provide a blissful shade, augmented by our parasols.
Two magpies dropped in for a drink from the basin, one pursuing the other making strange squeaky noises I've never heard before. The first bird ignored them and slaked its thirst instead.
magpie - pie bavarde - ekster
Our eldest came round for a belated father's day visit, arriving early to avoid heatwave temperatures and congestion on the road. So we had breakfast together on the front terrace. The blackbird above was giving a beautiful concert, where he recognised the bird from the song. Which it turns out he learned from a good birdsong identifying app - Merlin Bird ID, free from Cornell - which I promptly installed on my phone as well. I recommended PlantNet in return which I use to identify plants.
Other than birds we spotted a squirrel running through the front lawn, and heard a couple of distant thundery rumbles which I thought to be cannon at Waterloo for this weekend's reenactment (more on that tomorrow), where an early start would make sense in this extreme heat.
blackbird - merle - merel
squirrel - écureuil - eekhoorn
Earlier in the year I was surprised to see Jeremy Clarkson driving a tractor on the box (a Lamborghini of course) while zapping through the numerous obscure and mostly useless stations we get on our TV cable. Turns out there's a niche flemish farming channel that airs this Amazon series once a week. Since we don't do Amazon or Netflix or any of the other streaming channels this was a welcome surprise. This evening another season ended but we hope they'll continue with the next one because we're very much enjoying his farming adventures.