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A Day Without Rain

A Day Without Rain

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Yesterday, for the first time in days, we woke up to clear skies. I took a long walk then squeegeed off the glass-topped table on the deck, making a dry spot for alfresco research and writing. By late afternoon I was restless again, ready for another stroll. 

Such are the choices that await us on a day without rain, choices we haven’t had for the last week or so. Not that I’m complaining, given what residents of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas have been enduring. But a day without rain made me appreciate the sunny weather that is so often our lot. Plus, I can tolerate today’s dampness all the more after yesterday’s solar recharging. 

Today’s drippy cloudiness puts me in a reflective mood. This is the penultimate post I’ll write on this platform. On Tuesday, October 1, A Walker in the Suburbs moves to its new home. Stay tuned for more on this, including a link.

(Rainclouds in Canyonlands National Park)

Puddle Jumper

Puddle Jumper

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Last night’s deluge tapered off by morning, leaving plenty of puddles in its wake. They presented a small challenge to the early-morning ambler. 

Despite the burbling, hard-working storm drains and runoff ditches, water was still pooled on walkways and streets.

Some puddles were best navigated by stepping around them, partly on tufted islands in the saturated grass and partly on the slightly raised edge of the macadam path. 

Other puddles were small enough for me to jump. Luckily, there weren’t too many of those. 

Cloudy Day

Cloudy Day

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A quiet walk on a cloudy day. A rarity here, and I savored it, strolling through the dim light, noticing how still it was, how few sounds I heard. Even the birds seemed to be holding their breath. 

The pavement was damp from weekend rains and wet leaves slicked the path. There were twigs and small sticks, too. It was as if the woods had been partying and had yet to clean up after itself. 

This morning I wake to more rain. I’m hoping it will stop later so I can take a walk. If I’m lucky it will be still and cloudy again.

First Storm

First Storm

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Yesterday I was writing outside on the deck, as I often do these days, when I realized how dark it had become, darker than twilight. 

I wanted to stay outside while the storm was brewing, but began preliminary shutdown so I could run in at the first drops, a caution imposed on me by the (ahem) delicate nature of the electronics in my care. I covered the wooden rocking chair, tucked away the seat cushions, and moved books and phone inside.

Not long afterward, the wind picked up in earnest and I skedaddled completely inside, up to my second-floor office where I snapped this shot. 

Oh, what a storm it was! Rain blowing down the street, like so many curtains swishing. Fat drops pelting the garden, which needs moisture so desperately. Even some hail thrown in for good measure. 

It was my first big storm of the season … and it did not disappoint. 

First Storm

First Storm

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It’s pouring as I write this post, and there’s lightning, too. The first thunderstorm of the season. It’s rained so little this spring that I’ve almost forgotten the thrill of it,

I think about the thunderstorms of my youth, wind whistling through open windows, the rush to close the ones the rain was pouring through. The delicious feel in the air afterwards. There’s chemistry involved, I later learned, something about negative ions and positive mood.

What a cozy way to spend a Sunday morning, nothing expected except figuring out how to get the newspaper, which is outside … somehow … into the house.

(Rain is hard to photograph; this is one time I almost captured it. New York City, July 2021.)

Rainy Weekend

Rainy Weekend

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The weather in my corner of the world makes me think of a slightly altered cliche — you can’t keep a good climate down. The D.C. area is rich in sunshine, low in cloud cover and, at least for the last month or so, short on rain. Which means that last weekend’s wall-to-wall showers were quite welcome.

I made soup, culled old files, and washed and dried clothes to give away. The rain and cloud cover gave me permission to stay inside. It lent a coziness to time’s passage, blurred its edges. 

A quick glance at the weather forecast tells me we’re expecting clouds and rain for the next two days. Who knows what I might accomplish?! 

Calm after the Storm

Calm after the Storm

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We were pelted overnight by some much-needed rain. I could hear it beating the earth, could imagine it puddling on the driveway and in the low spots of the front yard. 

This morning the world looks fresh and clean. The azaleas are greening, shedding their brilliant jewel-toned flowers and becoming the sedate shrubs they are for most of the year. 

It’s a quiet, still day so far, the calm after the storm. Which at this point is … most welcome. 

The Good Fight

The Good Fight

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So far, April is proving to be as wet as March was windy. The months are playing their usual roles, in other words. 

I feel a certain responsibility on rainy days: unless otherwise occupied, I should use them for cleaning closets or going through old files in the basement. 

Which means that after I’ve written, and after I’ve studied, and after I’ve made today’s calls and sent today’s emails, I must get myself to the nether regions of the house … and fight the good fight.

Storm at Night

Storm at Night

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Thunder and lightning woke me up last night — that and the stagnant air that collected after a power loss. It was long-predicted — the remnants of Hurricane Ida heading this way — but no less frightening.

To see a storm brewing on the horizon, to watch as clouds darken and loom, is one thing. To be roused from sleep by a thunderclap is something else altogether. I wondered about the roof, the gutters, the tall trees that cluster around the house.  I felt at the mercy of the elements.  

I told myself that all would hold, the joists and metal and soil. I told myself to enjoy the spectacle of it all. But I couldn’t fall back to sleep until the torrents had slowed, until the heavens turned dark again. 

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Summer Storm

Summer Storm

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One of the things I like about going to the beach is, strangely enough, the rain. Not  the steady, all-day showers but the late-afternoon thunderstorm. 

In this subtropical climate you’re pretty much guaranteed to have two or three (or more) summer days a week with skies darkening after 3 or 4 p.m., the uptick of stickiness in already-humid air, the low rumble of thunder and then, with a release that matches the heat of the day, a lovely, brief torrent.

There was a downpour like that yesterday, a fitting way to say (sigh!) … goodbye to the beach.