Friday, October 12, 2012

Pitter Patter


Hubby in a borrowed  kayak
before the rains
Rain, at last! Not much yet today, but more will arrive by nightfall. Western Washington has endured a shockingly dry summer. Sure, I could have said “enjoyed” instead of “endured, but it’s so unusual, it feels weird. Our “endless” summer started  July 1 and ended today with the first autumn drizzle.

You can almost hear a sigh of content from the flora . . . as the cushion of moisture snuggles up against the evergreen needles and deciduous leaves to bring relief after the more than one hundred days without noticeable rainfall.

The river that runs by our home is lower than we remember seeing it, without its usual intake of runoff. There’s enough cracked mud along its shoulders for dogs to romp when their masters let them off the leash to chase thrown sticks, and the blue herons that regularly stand knee deep in the water as they wait for fish now stand in water only ankle deep. Although our lack of rain is not officially a “drought,” it has affected every living thing.

The weatherman tells us to brace ourselves for a deluge headed our way tonight. Although I hope he’s wrong about how much precipitation to expect, I know I will love the sound of rain on the roof when I awaken in the middle of the night. After all, I’m a native of western Washington.

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