Welcoming the Rain

The rain has been falling here for the best part of a week and I’ve been musing on the loveliness of ‘bad’ weather. Yes, we’ve had the storms, the gales, the drips down the back of the neck and the fighting the elements to get daily chores done. I got soaked last evening going to the shed for vegetables. But still……

We need this water. There are plenty of places not getting enough. In the deepest, cruellest winters of the Little Ice Age in Britain, around 1400, the snow would indeed have been ‘deep and crisp and even’; now we see about five foot of snow’s worth fall as rain and the water table is simply saturated. This is what should theoretically insulate us from the worst excesses of the hot summer which might be only months away. British people are constitutionally unable to deal with extremes of temperature or climate. We like it average, green, damp and dripping all Summer, or we start to complain.

Myself, I love to be out when the rain’s coming down. I’m lucky in that the soil my garden is based on doesn’t clump when it’s wet – so I can dig and fossick in all weathers. I’ve had more than one neighbour tell me it’s raining, as though I hadn’t noticed. I’m glad they care, but I just love the rain.

Even more, I love to be out walking, getting soaked and not caring – skin is waterproof in the way that matters, and there’s a warm house and coffee waiting for me on my return home.

But the best is thunderstorms. Sitting out and feeling the electricity building, watching the lightning and having the thunder rumble your innards, and then the rain – there’s many a storm I’ve danced about in laughing and just enjoying the power of nature unleashed. Perhaps I’m asking for electrocution but to me, the electrical storm is the meteorological equivalent of a roller-coaster. Too much fun not to take part in!