Monday 2 May 2011

Come on Rain

Lately I find myself longing for rain. Not the discrete little sprinkles that have been
taking place so conveniently over the last few nights, but huge great downpours, enough to keep me trapped indoors during the day and make the house so gloomy I don’t even want to look out of the window. And round here we’ve had nothing but sunshine for what seems like weeks now. Days flash by and they are all fine, usually warm, often breezy, but sadly with very little rain.

My husband hates the stuff. It makes him grumpy and bad tempered, stops him from going out
on his bike or doing all the little jobs outside I’m just longing, and hinting, he should be getting on with. So why am I moaning about such perfect spring weather? Isn’t it great to loll around in the sunshine under trees bowed down with blossom?

Why on earth should I want the rain? Is it because I have an allotment and a garden that’s starting to dry out so badly I swear the cat’s likely to disappear down a canyon sized crack, unlikely ever to return? (If you read my recent post about what the little beast gets up to, you
might say that would be a good result, for the birds at least.)

Yes of course it would be nice for the flowers to last for more than a few days, and my seedlings are so parched, even if they bother to germinate at all, and many of them don’t, they hardly have the strength to grow unless I water, water, water.

But my need for rain runs deeper and it comes from guilt, sheer and utter guilt. When you are
trying to be a writer, with only a modicum of success so far, it’s very hard to justify all the time spent tap, tapping at a keyboard when all around there are jobs to be done. And it’s only when the rains bucketing away outside do I have a good reason for staying indoors.

What’s the latest weather forecast? Dry, sunny and with a brisk wind, the very best weather for being outdoors, and I can see through the window the hedge needs clipping. Bother!



9 comments:

  1. Things may change.
    Like you , we have been desperate for rain, and after nearly 2 months we have just had thunder storms and rain for a day and a half.
    The water tubs are full again.
    And the weeds are shooting up.

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  2. Very dry here to - watering one half of the garden each day. Fields bearing up though. With me it is work that keeps me from writing though luckily I work from home.

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  3. We have had no rain for nearly a month now here in East Anglia, everything is soo dry. Fierce winds blowing for days too although the sun has shone nearly every day. Cornwall has lots of rain at the moment I hear, son has just travelled back from there on a family visit.

    Apparantly Lampie the weather forecast for June/July is going to be heavy downpours and a very hot August.

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  4. We have had plenty of rain here (France) today - torrential. Perhaps it's heading north.
    In fact I was answering this post earlier and had to log off to disconnect the modem. One year here we had the telephone jack blown out of the wall and the modem wrecked with a lightening strike.

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  5. Rosie, all I ask for is enough rain to justify my staying indoors... Don't send too much my way.

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  6. ah, the weeds! the trouble is that if inside, won;t the dust glare at you and the carpet wink that it needs hoovering. There's always something.
    In fact, I think that starting is the killer. So why not do something, anything, even a sentence, and leave it unfinished and then tomorrow (always tomorrow!) it's easier to start.
    At least ... that's what I tell myself I should do!

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  7. I'm exactly the same Norma, although we've recently bought one of those sail/shade thingys that attach to the pergola on the patio and so I can now take the laptop outside, carefully positioning myself so that my head and laptop stay in the shade so I can see the screen, but my legs are out in the sun ;)
    Perfect!

    x
    PS - I long for the rain - the pitter pattering on the barn roof is highly condusive for writing.

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  8. Tipping down here in E Sussex. Second night in a row. Excellent, especially when it's been sunny all day.

    Ground was still too dry though when I put toms in today. Only about an inch of moist soil.

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  9. I am late catching up here and it is now pouring with rain and already I have forgotten what the sunshine feels like.....and of course the garden is being invaded with weeds at a rate of knots with the rain...

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