Rain For a Parched Land

While climbing up into my bed last night, my ears caught a strange sound, rumblings from the sky. I strained my ears to hear more and as I pulled the covers up around my neck against the cold night, I saw it, flashes of light in the dark gray sky. There was lightening ! It seemed forever before the accompanying gentle pitter patter of rain arrived, but it did and it lasted throughout the night.
The morning broke with misty dampness. The chill more intense as rain often makes it. That damp cold that seeps down into the core of your bones. Hard to shake that kind of cold off.
With childlike enthusiasm I dressed in a hurry, as though I was getting to play in the snow. This elusive rain had finally appeared and I wanted to touch it, feel it on my face and hear it more clearly falling on the tin roof as if the drops were dancing a lively Irish jig.
I grabbed my camera of course. Mud boots were on, jacket, scarf, gloves. I was set. Fergus greeted me looking like an giant drenched rat. His fur divided into little clumps of puppy smelling hair. No matter to him, he was excited by this wetness. In his young life, this was a new experience to have so much rain.
Off we went together. Stepping lively over branches and twigs. Exploring the land, now wet after months of dry.
When the fun needed to end in order to do chores, the camera was tucked safely in the inside pocket of my jacket,
I hauled water and filled feed dishes with grain. I checked the barns to make sure hay was dry and checked the chickens nest boxes for eggs. My toes began to feel the tingling from the cold inside my mud boots, and my hands soon felt numb despite the added layer of my leather work gloves. My skirt muddy and cold around the hem, trying to cling to my ankles.
Crows calling to each other overhead as if rejoicing in the rain. Flocks of cow birds, flying from tree to tree and then landing in the pasture, specks of black, hopping about the grasses.
Tiny birds looking for shelter from the drops of rain the size of their eyes. The world out there seemed to be so much more alive than in yesterdays dryness.
It was hard to keep my mind on my chores, my eyes darting everywhere looking at the new dark wetness of the tree bark, the puddles mirroring the cloud filled sky. The chores now done, I lingered, wandering a bit more. Time to head in the house and get the fire going and make breakfast. Oatmeal, fried eggs and fried potatoes. Orange juice, and some nice hot chamomile tea to warm my innards.
Thunder again, heavy rain on the way. what a delightful day.