December

Of notable events- jackets are out, the security pact is in, and Christmas music sounds out of place everywhere it plays.

And the weather- the city that has grown numb to falling mortars was assaulted instead by a magnificent hailstorm. Deafening thunder split the sky for torrents of rain that instantly flooded the streets, until the sounds overhead were replaced by the percussion of a million frozen pellets finding anything still above the waterline. After enough ice had fallen to form tiny "hail drifts" the storm paused. The white chunks strewn thick on the city slowly melted back into confused rainwater hopelessly wandering the streets (though the rain here is clever, and quickly found a secret entrance to the basement).

These pictures are from after this storm had ended, near the start of December. The few spats of rain I saw ten months ago were just that, where this storm lingered for much of the day. After dark the last of the warmth had been pushed out of the air, as happens after such a storm, and for the first time this winter I could see my breath.