Location Taken: Savage, Maryland
Time Taken: August 2010
You know, as much as I miss snow this time of year, I think I miss hard-pounding rains even more.
That’s the ones where the rain comes down in sheets and rivers form instantly. We get them a lot here in Maryland during the autumn months, as heavy frontal systems and hurricanes head our way with glee at that time. In the spring, we do get an occasional heavy rain, but it’s much more likely to be lighter. The conditions just aren’t right for the prodigious amount of rainfall a frontal system hitting a summer-warmed ocean can manage.
For a long time, winter was my favorite season. Long cold days, snow, vacations, all sorts of fun stuff. But these days, autumn is more my thing. I love the long rainy days, the chill in the air, the falling leaves. Especially these last few years, winter has dragged on too long, the days monotonously cold, the grass that dead winter brown, the trees bare piles of sticks. When there’s no snow, winter is boring.
But autumn, even late summer, when the rains come, that’s when I delight. I especially like being caught out in them, though preferably under something with a roof. I’ve had some marvelous days working outside at the Renaissance Festival where the skies open up and the hill I’m on forms rivers. It was especially glorious the weekend Hurricane Irene came through. It was opening weekend, and with as few days as the Festival is open each year, each one is precious. So they opened, and lasted as long as they could, as the rain slowly came in and then went from a small drizzle to a deluge. Which is when they finally said enough was enough and kicked out the employees and that core group of regular customers who always come (not that they’re at all regular people in general, mind you). It was glorious, sitting out in a small stand watching the rain come down harder and faster and stronger.
If I’m just inside, heavy rains don’t make that much of an impact. Though I do often open my window to let the scents and sounds in. Just one of the ways I’m a little backwards, opening my window when it rains and closing it when it finishes raining…
