Imagining Rain over Sunday Morning Coffee

I am imagining rain today….probably because people are talking about drought.  It has been a lovely winter in Northern California.  The nights have been chilly and clear or if there has been coastal fog (which the redwoods drink), it burns off early in the day.  The days have been sunny with highs in the 50s and 60s.

Perfectly lovely, but no rain.

We need rain, so I’m imagining it.

Northern California coast is a rainforest.  I always think tropics when I think of a rainforest.  But no, I am living in one.  Our giant redwoods love rain, as do the ferns and moss.

As do I.

I remember when I first moved up here how amazing the rain was to me.  It would rain constantly….day and night, night and day for weeks.  I remember one April when it rained every single day without ceasing.

That is thirty days and thirty nights of constant rain.  Nearly biblical, no?

Amazing to me.

And it just fell.  No wind to set the stage.  No lightening.  No thunder.  The skies just opened and the rain came straight down.

It was mesmerizing.  I would stand for, well….not for hours….but for a long time looking up at the skylights in my home, watching the rain cascade down.  It was like standing underneath a waterfall.

The days were grey, making the bark more vividly red and the greens popped in sharp contrasts.  The clay-filled earth turned into mud.  There were mudslides and floods.  Often, State Route 101 would be closed, locking us off from the rest of the world behind the Redwood Curtain.  But, we were prepared.  We were used to it.

We whined, of course.

The beaches were nearly always deserted in the rain.  And they were dangerous.  The surf was high and angry.  Sneaker waves would try to take the sand from beneath your feet, pulling you into the riptides.  The rule was: never turn your back on the ocean.

I have been l o v i n g this weather! The rest of the States seem to be hit hard with ice and snow.  Some snow and ice is fun, but it can get old.  I’m well aware of that.  I’ve lived in Minnesota and grew up in Ohio.

But not here.

It really is very beautiful and I’m grateful to have been living here for the past 18 years.

Last night, there was the most marvelous sunset.  Our home is facing east and there are lots of trees to the west, so we don’t see the sunsets.  But, when the very air became tinted with hues of pinks and apricots, I looked up and saw the most beautiful cloud being kissed good-night by the last of the sun’s rays.

As I was taking pictures, I called Mr. Al to come see, but when he arrived, the moment was gone.

Beauty and magic.

And speaking of water, beauty and magic…here’s a tiny little movie I shot last October during our Waterfall Safari

Happy Sunday!