Laughing in the Rain
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 6:00AM Rain! Finally, rain has come, deep, soaking, restorative rains. The earth has gulped it in, plants have lifted their wilted leaves to receive it, birds and other animals are rejoicing in it.
I am reminded of when my youngest son was an infant. This child was a water baby, dipped in a warm bath immediately after birth, according to the LaBoya method, which elicited his first smile. From then onwards he always loved to play in the tub. I wasn't surprised when he later became a competitive swimmer, and to this day he likes being around water.
There was a drought soon after he was born, and he was nearly four months old before he ever saw water coming from the sky. It was a Sunday afternoon when the drought broke, and I carried him outside to see the rain. I wondered what his reaction would be.
"Look at the rain," I said as we stood with the water falling on us.
My baby gazed upward. The water drops collected on his eyelashes and ran over his face. He reached out his hand to feel the precipitation, evaluating the situation. Then he laughed out loud. I laughed too, at his response and at the pleasure of the moment we had together. It is a good memory I have, the two of us, laughing in the rain.
Following overnight rains this week, we have had beautiful afternoons with sweet smelling, cool breezes. I want to believe 90 degree temperatures are gone until next summer. Autumn is here!
I wandered the gardens yesterday, enjoying the changes. Follow me on a quick tour.
The Japanese maple near the patio is taking on more golden tones:
The Japanese maple I call our marriage tree has also begun to change colors, just in the past few days. You can see a few red leaves:
Here is the view through the rose arch, one of my favorite spots through all the seasons:
Way down in the front yard I took this photo of Chinese Pistache leaves, Oakleaf hydrangeas and the Crytomeria tree:
There are a few blossoms. The spider lilies started blooming a few days ago. The Penelope rose is putting out new buds after a summer rest, while the cosmos, Limelight hydrangea, and autumn sage have been blooming since mid summer:
Some berries and colorful foliage caught my attention. The dried seed pods in the first photo are from a redbud tree. Also shown are dogwood berries, Japanese maple 'Waterfall' foliage, and heuchera.:
Foliage of nearby plants suffered from September's high temps and drought, but weeping cedar "Feelin' Blue' looks great:
Here's an early fall view of the woodland garden:
And finally, a view of the blue bridge at other end of the woodland garden:
Wherever you are, I hope you are enjoying some nice weather, too! Deborah
Reader Comments (17)
Like your baby, I'm enjoying the raindrops on my face here in Connecticut these days. The woods are the place to be as fall approaches, as your pix show so beautifully!
Such a beautiful story. So glad your gardens finally received rain! We did last week and it was nothing short of glorious!
Wonderful walk through your gardens, Deb! I love the woodland effect, though it is prettier than just a walk through the woods. And what a wonderful story about your water-baby! I can almost hear the giggles of delight.
Wonderful story about your son.
Your garden is looking beautiful. We were happy to finally get some rain and break the heat here too.
I'm so glad others in the state received rain too. We got around 1" - still probably not enough, but it sure made the plants revive. This has been such a bad year.
Your spider lilies are beautiful, and I love the blue weeping cedar. Rain sounds wonderful at the moment, it's been rather hot here the last few days. I love the first good soaking of the season. Everything seems brighter, and fresher the next morning, and I love the sweet aroma in the air after that first refreshing rainfall.
We also had a great rain, after a long dry spell, it put people and plants all in a happy mood. Your gardens are lovely. They look so peaceful and secluded.
I loved reading the story about your rain baby - it makes me nostalgic for those babes in arms days. We, too, have received lots of rain since Sunday afternoon. - 7.5 inches at my house! No rain today but more is expected tomorrow. We were so, so dry and I have felt like going out and dancing in the puddles. I
I love your weeping cedar!
I smiled as I read the story about your baby' delight at the rain.
The rose arch makes the perfect frame for viewing the woods beyond. Your Japanese maples look wonderful. I love the shape of them, as well as their colours. They have the perfect shape for planting underneath, wish they were hardy here.
What a sweet story Deb! Your gardens and photos are gorgeous!! Really Beautiful. Yeah! to the rain! I am laughing too. ;>)
All looks lush and autumn lovely. Happy October :)
We are enjoying the rain here too, hopefully it will not turn into typhoons which is a dreaded calamity last year! BTW, we often only get enough rains when there are typhoons, so we just pray it doesn't come too harsh. I love your area, especially the small blue foot bridge accent. Very romantic looking bridge. Autumn is approaching and i will again be envious of the colors in your parts of the world, colors which is deprived of us. We only have dry and wet seasons. I will be waiting for those wonderful autumn colors from blogs in temperate climes. thanks.
Dear Deborah, I canalmost feel your relief at the more benign temperatures and the rain. The garden certainly seems to have weathered the brutal summer very well indeed and looks set to give you an amazing show of autumn colour. As always, your woodland garden is a tapestry of delight with those lovely slatey colours, accented by the blue paint of your garden bridge and bench. In just a short time I can just imagine that your whole garden will be absolutely spectacular!
Amazing how different our weather is. For the last three weeks, everytime I have gone up to Kilbourne Grove it has rained. Hard to get anything done, but everything is looking very perky.
I really enjoyed your account of your "water baby." The rain got here to southern Pennsylvania yesterday. Some areas got torrential downpours, but in Gettysburg we got about 3-4" of rain in 24 hours -- enough to wipe out our precipitation deficit, but not enough to cause serious flooding. Now the sun is out, the sky is blue, there is a brisk fall breeze blowing, and my garden is looking refreshed.
Your woodland is beautiful, cool and inviting. The autumn colours are lovely too, here in Italy the process is much slower with some leaves only changing in late November or even December, my walnut tree's leaves are turning yellow. Oak trees here behave like beach in England and just go brown but stay on the tree. I'm planting a slope too, you can read my thought processes on the end of month review, August. www.myhesperidesgarden.com
I'd like to see photos of your slope and read about its problems. Christina
Hi Deborah, love this post. Love the evocative description of the rain, and especially love your woodland garden which is possibly my favourite type of garden. I suppose because it is wild and natural looking. cheers, camtint