I Love the Rain

Perhaps I was born during a rainy fall day.  Would that explain how much I love the rain?  Walking through the pine forest in a mist or fog I have often felt that time has stopped.  I could be anyone in any hour of any day in this or another century.  Everything slows down and I am able to focus on what is small and near and tangible - as that which is far away is softly obscured.  Bark and leaves and textures, tiny branches, toadstools and fungi, droplets of water on my head - and sounds - sounds that are both muffled and magnified.  The tapping of the water droplets, the sweet percussive sound of a runoff creek  as it carries bits of the natural world down a fresh gravitational path.

If I am lucky, the tree frogs are singing - or I may chance upon a rabbit or doe rustling away into deeper cover.  I love, too, the light after a rain, when the mist rises from warm earth seeming to carry the light up and hold it in place; a mist lit from within.

And then everything blooms!

After two days of steady soaking rain...

 

 My narcissus doesn't bloom every year.  The drought and heat of the South cause undo stress - making me wait for well timed rains to bring it into full bursting glory.

Before the rain... two days ago.

Yes, I've been painting, but I post my commissioned works here - a pair of paintings for Mother's Day.  So for further entertainment, here is the very undignified Gracie lounging atop my (formerly) clean laundry.  No - she's not nursing kittens, she just has very fine short hair, rather like a Rex, on her pink and plump belly..

Gracie - rescued last year from a Walmart parking lot.  She never has to eat greasy popcorn chicken again.

Over the decades of my life I've rescued or adopted many many cats.  Gracie is unique in that she shows her joy and gratitude at being safe, loved and fed regularly.  She is affectionate, sweet and loving all the time, and wants nothing more than to be a lap cat.  Whoever dumped her there missed out on a very special feline.

Dreaming of Friskies...

Ain't that the pinkest kitty nose you ever saw?

And when it rains, Elvis gets back in "the box".  Note the new scratch on his nose.

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms.