After the Rain

Our part of central Pennsylvania has been way too dry for the past month or so. I took my new umbrella out for a spin on July 5, when it started to drizzle. Sadly, I had my umbrella down before I even got to the top of Tow Hill that morning! 

A narrow brush with a big storm system on the 17th, with precipitation swirling all around us on the weather map, gave us a quick drizzle that evening, but left us mostly high and dry. We'd started watering the milkweed; we began to worry about our trees.

Well, guess what: oh happy day, this afternoon brought us a significant amount of much-needed rain. Around 4 p.m., the sky turned dark as pitch, I mean, dark as MIDNIGHT, and the winds grew wild, and the heavens opened up - FINALLY - and DOWN CAME THE RAIN!!!!

Oh, rain, glorious rain! It was so alien to us that my husband and I simply sat on the front porch and watched and listened to and smelled the rain. That ozone smell of summer rain - you miss it when you never get to experience it.

Also, the temperatures dropped! Then, oh joy of joys, it rained AGAIN later in the evening, and this time, it rained a good, solid, soaking rain for several hours. It didn't boom and blow; it just quietly rained.

And the trees drank. And the milkweed drank. And the tomatoes drank. And the jewelweed drank. And every creature on our property got a drink and a drench. Like it or not, down came the rain!

At one point, we both looked out onto the driveway and said, sort of as one: Is that a TOAD? Yes, a toad! The toad - perhaps one of many, they've been keeping a low profile - just sat there and enjoyed the rain. And of course, by the time I went and grabbed my camera, it was gone. Just like that.

I walked around after the first blast of rain and took some pictures of the raindrops. Here is one of our osteospermum blooms, shining white out of the darkness, celebrating a much-needed rain. Our soundtrack song is Ladysmith Black Mambazo, with Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain.