Wonderful Wednesday #121
When the rain is lovely and some really lovely bright bits from lately.
On Tuesday the rain came. Not just a smatter of it, or the kind that catches in the wind and doesn’t ever seem to reach the ground before it’s gone again. No, this was the sort of rain you hear before you see it. Great big ‘all of a sudden’ raindrops clattering against rooftops and rushing down drainpipes fast enough to flood in between the paving stones and dips in the ground that can’t tip or tilt it away fast enough.
It’s unlike us to see so little rain for along as we have, actually. I’ll always think of Cumbria as a bit of a damp place and, part of me enjoys wet pup walks with a big waterproof coat and wellies. The sort of days you have to surrender to the weather and curl up indoors and even the way that the rain can really change a day or, the landscape seemingly overnight; no matter what time of year it is. I think that when you’re so used to rain you’re also used to simply accepting it, existing in it and not around it or despite of it and that you maybe even lose the novelty of it…? If there is even such a thing as the novelty of a rain shower…
I have no doubt that there’ll be many Springs and maybe even hundreds of thousands of rain showers in my life time, but each year I forget how lovely Spring rain is.* It’s a far cry from the icy wintery showers that burn against your cheeks that you can’t escape from fast enough or, even the ones caught in the amber-y glow of autumns’ last light. Where there is a little more warmth but the sights and smells are notably different.
Spring rain smells…alive. It invites you to linger in it a little. The air is warmer and filled with the smell of green and of flowers: A heady mingling and damp muddle of florals that I won’t even pretend to be able to identify but, it’s almost as if everything in bloom is vying for attention all at once: An olfactive display of beautiful scents that could make the most beautiful perfume if ever anyone was clever enough to be able to replicate it note for note.
At this time of year there are always bright bits, but there’s also no denying that these small joys are easier to find because it feels as if they come thick and fast at this end of the year; just like the days that I find them in: Brighter, lighter and just as abundant as the landscape each one rests on.
Here are some lovely things from lately:
1 A new lampshade. Technically—i guess— also perched upon a new lamp base too. does it count if the base has sat shade-less for maybe eighteen months I wonder? The lamp in its whole self is new then? I can’t rush most decisions, not least anything that I buy for our pint-sized home.
I was kindly bought a beautiful recycled glass lamp base for my birthday a couple of years ago. It’s the prettiest shade of blue-sky-blue with a matching blue cotton cord and I spotted a lampshade a few months ago and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. A sure-fire sign it’s love. Or at least the right decision. It’s a pretty scalloped shape, hand-covered in an amber-y brown vintage Liberty fabric and it has just made the hugest difference to our bedroom. A gentle lesson that some things benefit from a little more time. If I was more organised I would have taken some photos to show you. I shall soon I promise.
2 A really good lentil ragu with meatballs and spaghetti at the end of a long day. A dish I have cooked so many times that I don’t even need to look at a recipe but, one that haven’t cooked for a little while. There is nothing quite like a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs at the end of a very long-feeling day, is there?
3 Reading and finishing a really lovely book and diving straight into another with barely a breath and feeling equally swept up into its pages and eager to fall into a chapter each night before bed. I have just finished ‘Raising Hare’ by Chloe Dalton (Beautiful, heartbreaking: Mesmerised from page one. Why has it taken me so long to read it?!). And i have just began to read ‘Quiet Moon’ by Kevin Parr. It’s too soon to really tell (like page thirty too soon) but I’m already hanging on each and every beautifully written word.
What smaller moments and maybe could-be forgotten joys are you the most grateful for these days? I’d so love for you to share. Have you been treasuring Spring and all of the beautiful flowers and what are you reading or have just read? Let me know!
Thank you so much for spending your time being here. I’m not ‘here’ nearly as much as I’d like to be but there is life and there is simply not always the time to share as much and support as many as I would like to.
*disclaimer: I write this having, and by some miracle, not have gotten caught in said rain on either my morning pup walk, cycle to and from work or whilst popping out at lunch time. This post could have easily taken a very different turn…
As a gardener, I love a rain shower. Also, I cried at Raising Hare. Such a beautiful book.
We had that same rain on Monday night, I was doing my youngest’s bedtime and I have never heard the rain hammering down so loudly on the roof. When it came to tucking the ducks into bed the smell was beautiful, I noticed it smelled almost like pencil shavings, something I’ve never noticed before ✨