The forecast for today was all over the place in terms of wind and we had considered going up to the Peaks, but a chat with others had us decide against it. Too much chance of thunderstorms and if you went XC, you’d probably just fly into the front anyway.

Here the forecast changed and started to indicate that it would be west in the afternoon, so we decided to go to archery for the first time this year and then try to fly later. Given that we would still be in the same (crap) airmass as we have been for the whole week, I wasn’t too optimistic. Driving over the Long Mynd to the archery club in Stretton the wind was north, but very light, with the usual haze. What we didn’t know was that there was a longbow competition at the club, so no shooting for us with recurve bows. They did encourage us to have a go though and we were lent a couple of bows by the very nice Rupert.

It’s very different from shooting recurve. You don’t have a sight, have to balance the arrow on your knuckle and I found it harder to pull than our more flexible bows. Still, it’s a far more pure form of archery and it was really great to get a chance to have a go. All the longbow men hoped they had couple of recruits to the other side, but I’ll need to have another go before I comsider investing in another bow. I did find it a bit distressing though to shoot at a target with moles on it!

By 1pm, we couldn’t stand the sky any more and left to see if the wind had turned west. Much to our amazement, it had gone strongish east, so we went home to do some gardening and wait to see what would happen. Viv and Phil were at Corndon and reported the wind on and soarable, but they didn’t fancy it without any locals around. It was a good call. We heard the first clap of thunder about 45 minutes later, coming from the direction of Corndon. It stormed/rained from then until after 6pm.

See photos of today.

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