It's Raining, It's Pouring

OK, so maybe it's not POURING.  Thank goodness.  It has been raining pretty much steadily for the last 2 days.  I'm starting to feel like a mushroom.  The horses are walking around in a swamp and even the chickens smell like wet feathers.

Still, there IS something just plain great about rain.  Things around here (especially weeds) are growing so fast that you can almost hear them as they strain towards the sky.  Even weeds, with the exception of the accursed poison hemlock) are great--I can pick them for my chickens to eat.  They love chickweed, clover, stickweed, you name it.  The anticipation of seeing what will spring up first in the garden is a delicious anxiety.  Will it be the peas, or the lettuce?  How are the potatoes liking this?

And isn't it amazing how everything does better with rainwater, as opposed to "hose" water?  We can put all the sprinklers we want to in the garden, and they do help, but just a little bit of rain makes those plants shoot up like there's no tomorrow.  Even when we had a "lawn" that we maintained, one hour of rain made it grow better than a solid week of hose watering.

I think the best thing is that finally I can hear the rain.  I grew up in a house with a flat roof.  I loved falling asleep hearing the rain drumming above me and knowing that I was safe and sound.  I didn't appreciate it until I moved into a succession of houses and apartments that I couldn't hear rain in.  No matter how lovely the condo or spacious the house, I found myself missing the sound of rain on the roof.

So now I'm lucky enough to have a home that lets me hear the rain, in many versions.  Sometimes it softly thumps on the roof.  Sometimes it rattles against the skylights.  Sometimes in a heavy wind, it clacks on the windows as the gale makes the gutters howl.  Sometimes it patters on the bricks outside and sometimes it hisses through the trees.  Sometimes it's not even raining, but a heavy mist collects on the trees and sheds heavy droplets to land with soft splats on the ground below.

The kids sing "rain rain go away, come again some other day."  Sure, sometimes rain is a pain in the rear when I have to put on a slicker and wellies to go out five times a day.  But the beauty it gives is more than enough payback.  I'm a sunlight lover, but without that lovely rain, where would we be?  I guess it's just part of growing up and learning to enjoy the rain so that I can better enjoy the sun.

Besides, it just so happens that I enjoy dancing in the rain too.  I'm glad it's getting warm enough to do just that.