This year the midday service was held in the ermita as the church was still undergoing renovation work.
Everyone was dressed in their best...
...for the mass...
...and several people were wearing the traditional costume or traje regional.
Lunch for the entire village took place in the Plaza Mayor...
...and everyone was served a plate of paella...
...followed by our homemade deserts.
Everyone enjoyed the meal and the company, a wonderful end to the fiesta celebrations.
But then, shortly after everyone had dispersed, a hailstorm, like no other you have ever seen with hailstones almost as big as tennis balls...
...lasted just over 10 minutes and destroyed virtually everything in it's path...
...especially if it was made from plastic like the swing settee,..
...our garden relaxer seats,...
...my YingYang mobile, shattered!, as well as the solar heater for the jacuzzi...
...and 2 out of 3 of the wall light globes.
There will be a very poor crop of olives to harvest this year as so many were torn from the trees by the hailstones.
Similarly, the current crop of peaches has been decimated and all the damaged fruit has been discarded. The almond harvest too will be reduced. This has a knock on effect not only for the farmers who have lost their crops but also for the casual labour employed to collect and sort the produce. The only people to benefit from the storm are the roofing contractors and the car repair centres.
The force of the hailstones had also broken many of the tiles on the terrace as well as chopping up the hosepipe between the jacuzzi and the solar heating panel.
Although our car was parked under an overhang to give it more shade from the sun it was still exposed to the storm and suffered a lot of damage to the windscreen, every plastic part and the body panels.
The last time the village of Torre del Compte witnessed so much destruction was over 75 years ago during the Spanish civil war.
At least when a bomb explodes it is over within a couple of seconds. Here, the bombardment was constant for over 10 minutes.
Someone, or something, had obviously offended San Ramón for him to have sent the storm to punish the village. Maybe he was upset because his statue was not taken around the village as it is every year when the service is held in the church but because this year, as the mass was in the ermita, he was not carried around the village.
To see the video of the TV and local coverage of the storm, click HERE
