16:23: Brick shelter, avoiding a heavy rainstorm, with some thunder and then hail. I might have known - all five swans (that I'd passed earlier) were sitting or lying on the ground with legs retracted and necks buried in the feathers of their backs...
...I was interrupted by a fellow shelterer. The storm was soon over and by the time I got back to Parliament Hill I could see it away to the east.
As I walked back I realised that it's time to read this diary from its beginning, six months ago, and to write now with more awareness of what I've written - and especially of themes and thoughts that could develop here amidst these accidents I so much like.
And the swans. I was about to ask myself if I really believe such lore as cows sit down before rain (to keep a patch of ground dry?) - and do swans do something of the same...? Certainly I believe that the signs of coming weather are evident, or unconsciously felt, by any animal or person. But the geese and ducks were still swimming or walking about when the swans were sitting or lying down - so perhaps it was for some other reason. Obeying or copying papa perhaps?... That's enough for the moment.
I can again hear teenagers shouting or arguing in the street.