Rain!

I have been caught in the rain twice in the last two days, which is an entirely unfamiliar experience here in the land of water restrictions. I'm not a fan of summer heat at the best of times but the combination of drought, a raised body temperature due to pregnancy and some pretty paltry shade in my garden has left me feeling even more fed up than usual. So yesterday's top-to-toe drenching was a welcome relief. Today's was exhilarating.

Yesterday's downpour brought my eagerly-anticipated trip to the local nursery to an abrupt end, but I had at least checked out a cherry tree and asked the lady a load of questions before making the dash to the car. DD was wet and I was soaked through, throwing my handbag onto the floor and jumping into the vacant rear seat to strap her in before climbing into the front.
In the evening, when the air was still tropically warm and the doors still open, it poured again. We watched the water gushing over our blocked gutters. We watched it filling a clogged drain by the garage. And we saw it running down the back path in a direct line towards the door, then mercifully veering off to create a little river along the back verandah, around the corner and down the driveway.

Today's rain was quite magical though, as I imagined it through my little girl's eyes. The local festival is on and the open and sprawling botanic gardens are home for the weekend to an array of cute farm animals, outdoor stages, portaloos, temporary signage and food vendors. We took too long leave the house let alone dawdle from the car to meet up with my family, so had to bypass the "farm amimools" but enjoyed a fabulous performance by a bunch of percussionists messing about with garden implements before the drumming was complemented by thunder, the performance ended, the rain fell and strangers - nervous about sheltering beneath towering sequoia trees in an electric storm - crammed together under market umbrellas and found themselves forced to greet each other.
We were relatively well-prepared... it had taken us so long to leave home that I saw the impending clouds and threw in our rain coats at the last minute. I was sporting a rather slick and shapely - if hyper-visible - cycling raincoat which fits neatly over my swelling tummy for the present. My daughter had started out in some pale blue three-quarter pants but they kept falling down and had been replaced with her "waders" shortly after leaving the car. I'm proud to point out here that I thriftily constructed the waders from the sleeves of a second-hand spray-jacket a year ago, even using the elastic taken from the hood of the jacket to secure the waist... Her dear little red raincoat I had slipped on at the first drop of rain.
The rain continued to gush from the sky in one great splosh and we ran - my father, my two nephews and myself with DD on my hip - across the lawn, over the road and along the lakeside path to the waiting "historical" tram. The dear old carriage runs all of a couple of hundred metres along the lake's edge before turning back to either traverse the same few hundred metres in the opposite direction or to return to it's museum. It was dry and cosy and remained stationary for some time - in fact the rain had nearly stopped by the time it finally departed - but DD was pleased with her ticket and the old carriage trundled us all the way back to our parked car without any further drenching.

And as we walked back to the car - my little girl on my hip once again - I thought:
I feel really good. Right now.
That's not something I can rely upon from a cup of coffee. It's not something I can orchestrate at all.