This afternoon we had a thunderstorm. The sky became nearly as dark as night, the lightning flashed and the rain came down in buckets. As I left the pottery studio at dusk I saw an absolutely gobsmacking sight...the freshly washed sky was a glowing cobalt blue and the first stars twinkled in the east as the last rays of the sun died in a paler shade of blue, wisps of charcol clouds waving goodbye.