Summer Rain

Everyday since mid June I've enjoyed long days outside planting flowers, working on landscape projects and walking in Dobbs' Woods, but today is an inside the house day as everything outside is soggy wet from the steady stream of rain outpouring from the sky since the wee hours of the morn. During the night the rumble tumble boom of thunder and razor sharp lightning flashes penetrating our bedroom window provided quite a sight and sound show. Then the rains came; I know what the songwriter meant when he wrote " Listening the to rhythm of the falling rain". I laid awake listening as long as I could to the rhythm of the rain, and what reminded me of a mid west summer storm experience , but eventually grew too tired and I finally fell asleep.

It is now 3 p.m. and what should be a warm summer day is instead dark and gray with not a hint of sun; The temperature is cool. A short while ago I found myself in the kitchen pressing my face against the window watching the rain come down - like a kid waiting and wanting to go out and play, tired of being in the house all day doing puzzles, coloring and reading books.

Two turkeys, their feathered bodies slick and oily from being too long in the rain, take shelter under a tree; a short distance away a cocoa colored rabbit hippity hops out of his burrow, sniffs the air and quickly hippity hops back in. The lake is covered with a misty haze, like a scene from a medieval fantasy novel. Although, it's not the sunny day I planned on, it is a beautiful day; unique and special in its north Idaho way.

I stare and study the pine trees, some 50 years old. It might be my imagination, but it seems the trees, both young and old are joyful, happy to be drinking in the rain. They look taller, more majestic; Their long piney branches seem a deeper, darker green and I'm grateful for what the rain provides, giving needed relief from dry, hot days to earth and all living things.