After several weeks of dry (and sometimes warm) weather, rain showers have returned to Western Washington. This feels good to locals like me.
Of course I’m not really a local. I grew up in Ohio, but I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest for 30 years. I’m pretty sure I qualify as indigenous now, because I begin to feel uncomfortable if more than a couple of days go by with no rain. When the sun is out and fresh-faced Seattle TV news personalities (I’m sure they have come here from California) gush about how great the weather is, I get kind of twitchy.
Stocking cap and rain parka: Good! Shorts and sunscreen: Bad!
It’s not that I’m completely against sunshine. All I want is what the plants want. Together, the plants and I have decided that this morning was darned near perfect.
I was out early, photographing raindrops hanging from the wisteria that twines along the front of our house. The rain was falling softly and gently--what the Navajos call a “Woman Rain.” Shortly thereafter the sun broke out. I’m pretty sure I heard the wisteria whispering to me that she was in a state of biological bliss. The spring weather cycle of rain shower/sun, rain shower/sun seems to be just right.
When Miss Wisteria is happy, I am happy.
