The First Autumn Rains

 After what seemed like months of endless Cyprus sunshine, the first real signs of autumn finally arrived in Pissouri.

October is always an interesting month here. Summer hasn't quite given up, and the days can still be warm and pleasant, but there is a definite change in the air. The intense blue skies of summer begin to give way to darker clouds, cooler evenings and, eventually, those first welcome rains.

And in early October 2026, the clouds certainly put on a show.

We had been watching the sky as the weather began to change. Dark clouds were gathering over Pissouri, and the familiar landscape suddenly looked very different. Instead of the brilliant sunshine and almost cloudless skies we've become so accustomed to during the summer months, everything took on a much more dramatic appearance.

Among the mass of dark clouds was an unusual formation that, when we looked at it, appeared to have a bowl-shaped flash of lightning running through it.

It was one of those moments when you realise that sometimes you simply have to have a camera nearby.

The shape of the lightning seemed almost too perfect — a bright, jagged line illuminating the cloud and creating what looked remarkably like a bowl in the sky.