Rain

I like rain. I like rain a lot. I guess it’s because I grew up in California which is more than anything a desert. Even up here, in the north. The south is definitely a desert, or would be if people didn’t get creative with terraforming – making the Earth do what people want it to do.

Because it's been terraformed it's a desert well hid by irrigated fields, but it's still a desert under the green patina.

Here, in Sonoma County, yesterday was a treat because it rained. It never rains here in the summer!

In the past few months we’ve had promises of rain several times but, because I’ve lived around here my entire fifty-five plus years I have a pretty good handle on what’s likely and what’s not. Since, in my years of experience summer rain is more rare than hen's teeth, I took the promises with a knowing nod of ‘uh huh’. Every other time I was right. Yesterday, I was happy to be wrong.

It was cloudy when I drove to work. Nothing unusual since we live near the coast where fog is common. When I heard the radio announcer say ‘rain’ I did my knowing nod. A few hours later I was proved wrong. Not a lot, because it didn’t rain hard or for more than a couple of hours, but welcome hours they were.

Showers on and off and I even got to drive home in a spit. It wasn’t really a rain. There was water falling from the sky, but it was neither organized nor determined. It was an anarchy of droplets that didn’t seem to have a whole lot of collective will. But still, I got to drive home in it and, because it wasn’t collective or willful, I had my windows down. I didn’t fear the rain would come in and make everything wet. I took advantage and breathed in the smells of trees and wild grass.

Fennel and eucalyptus were the two strongest scents. The fennel is beginning to flower and its scent was strong among the wet asphalt and thirsty ground. The eucalyptus reminds me of being little.

Stuffy nose? A few drops of eucalyptus oil on the pillow case. No Mentholatum or Vaporub. It was always eucalyptus oil unless it was a chest cold. Wet eucalyptus brings those days back and I breathe deeply, eyes closed to savor the scent.

It’s still gray and hopeful here this morning, but I think the rain is gone again. The ground is wet so the air is moist, but I don’t think we’ll see rain. It does look a lot like this, though:

This does tell me, though, that the ocean is different. I spoke with my daughter who lives out by the coast. She told me that she hasn’t been seeing fog this year, not like in years past. That does make me wonder, but climates change, it’s what they do and it’s how we got to where we are now.

Years ago the climate was doing one thing. Places that are deserts now, were lush forests. Places that are valleys now were under the sea then – like the Central Valley in California. Look at a map. The ocean was, at some point, higher enough to fill and form that valley. Then the water receded and… here we are. Then the climate stopped doing that and morphed into something else, and something else until we got to where we are now.

Her comment on the fog makes me wonder.

I read an article about concerns in eastern Australia about drought. The ocean temperature in the Pacific basin is warming, a sign of a coming El Nino, and that could affect rainfall totals in Australia. It might well bring rain here, though, so it's a trade off.

Then again, this week there were twin typhoons heading for Southeast Asia.

Here, we’ve gotten rain in the summer – almost unheard of in my paltry experience.

Yes, the climate is observably changing but, as I’ve said before, it’s what climates do.

In the meantime, I’m appreciative of every drop we got, thankful for the wet pavement (no matter how short-lived), and hope we get more because I like rain.

I like the sound of on the roof at night, when it taps against my windows when I’m snug in bed. I like the smell of it after the ‘people’ smell has been washed away. Nothing is better than being in the rain in a field away from the road. The wind plays around you, picking up the scents of Earth and plants. Unless it’s being in a forest and hearing the platter and splatter of drops on leaves, the quiet plashing of water falling onto wet soil.

People complain about the weather all the time. ‘It’s too hot.’ ‘It’s too cold.’ ‘Oh, damn, it’s raining.’ I don’t. I might comment that it’s cold, but then I go pull another sweater out of the drawer, or pull the extra blanket up. If it’s hot I’ll shake my head and submit, go about my business knowing there’s really not a lot to do about it. Complaining isn’t going to make the weather gods sit up and say, ‘Oh! Gosh, I’m sorry. My feet were cold and I got carried away at the thermostat.’

Nope. The weather is going to do what the weather will do. I’ll just enjoy the times it does what I like. Like give us some rain after a long dry spell. Even a little is satisfying, and I’m happy to enjoy it while it lasts.

Have a lovely day with whatever weather you're granted!

Best~

Philippa

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