Walking in the rain

I don’t know about you, but I love the rain. Little misty rain, big fat rain, cold hard rain, I like any type of rain. When I was a kid the neighborhood moms had a rule –if we hear thunder it’s time to come in. But other than that if it was raining we were usually playing in it. In Florida that is a lot, especially in the late summer when the rain storms are almost a daily occurrence. As I got older all the rain soaked canoeing trips and misty winter hikes seemed to take their toll. It wasn’t so much that it bothered me as it bothered my wife and baby son. Wet and tiered aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. But in the past 10 years or so it seems that the summer rains are less regular, rain year round seems to be dropping. This is mainly because we are getting more inches per hour on average and rain less often, according to NOAA’s  US Weather data (http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/climatedata.html#search ). This can cause heavy erosion and sometimes flooding. And the likely hood of weeks between rainfall in the summer is on the increase. SO I really love rain. My kids are much older and we play in the rain any chance we get. The best places to play in the rain are, in my opinion, in the woods. The beach and grassy fields are also a lot of fun, but lightning is much more of a concern in areas where there are few trees. You don’t want to be the tallest thing around when Lightning hits.

We have often been caught in the rain on canoe trips and hikes, best thing to do in these situations is just enjoy the change in temperature and cover up anything that doesn’t handle getting wet. Like crackers, sandwiches, cell phones and wallets (I always take mine in a zip-lock bag). My little girl used to love to catch raindrops in her mouth. She would sing “If all the raindrops, were lemon drops and gumdrops. Oh, what a rain that would be! Standing outside, with my mouth open wide Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,  If all the raindrops ,were lemon drops and gumdrops. Oh, what a rain that would be!

Isn’t that great! She quit singing this when my 12 year old son told her that a flock of birds went over and she was catching bird pee.  Well –in its own way that was really fun too.

So today I present my tribute to awesome rain. And here are a few paintings to get you in the mood for a walk in the rain.

This first one was done on location at Cedar Key,  a great place to go rain gazing. It was September and hot and the bugs were out so I snapped a few pictures after I started this one. I was really caught up in looking at the birds and didn’t get very far on the painting before I had  lost the light. Those cow birds just glow in the fading sun.                                                                         

The next one was kind a surprise. I had apparently had my camera in the back seat and my daughter took some photo’s on our way up to NC. I didn’t find these photo’s until later and I remembered how pretty the light rain was and how soft the light made all the colors. I think that memory really helped me get the feeling in this painting just right; soft and cool.

So the next time it rains, head out for some rain gazing. If you get out in it, don’t run for cover, enjoy the feeling and think of how wonderful it is that we can enjoy the rain so much here in Florida.