We've got our annual village festival this weekend. The art exhibition goes from Friday night through to Sunday evening, but most of the festivities happen tomorrrow. Today (Saturday) some workshops happen, but otherwise the town is quiet.
We just got back from the art exhibition, but while we were there we decided to stay a little longer when a sudden, heavy summer storm hit hard. These come in without warning (although the forecast predicted possibility of isolated late storm) and can be very powerful, lots of lightning, often hail and so on.
Peoplewent running outside to rescue car windows they'd left down, etc (quiet town, nobody ever locks their car) and we suddenly remembered - as we arrived, a crowd of people were gathered over the road in the park, watching people make a sand mandala! As we followed people to the entranxe of the hall to see them scurry for their cars to put windows down, we saw the mandala people, screaming instructions to one another over the gale, the heavy downpour and everything else, trying to save the mandala. They were standing there soaking wet, rain pouring off them, silhouetted by the lightning flashes, trying to save their hard work.
After the storm, we walked over to see the damage. At the edges some of the colour had run, there were a few other areas where the raindrops had left imprints in the sand, but the pattern they were working on was a sort of waterlily, in varying shades of blue, with black lines surrounding different sections. So apart from some bits which got too badly blurred, it looks like most of it will be OK. But there is now a complex network of tarpaulins over the whole thing, as well as tarp 'fence' to knee height, trying to protect it from further rain and drips, as well as wind.
I think they're in for a long night!
I wish they'd been filming their process - it definitely would be worth putting it up on YouTube!
Marg
