The First Spring Rain - Ice Caves in the Snowbanks

Raining today.

The skies are a cool grey and the air smells of wet critters and earth. Outside the perimeter and protection of the buildings in the courtyard, the wind is sporadic. It seems to be from the northeast - a bit chill. I imagine it is pulling cold from the frost still in the ground and from what snow that is left. There are still patches of snow, here and there. Most of the snow remains in the ditches along the roadways that still have mounds of snow interlaced with steadily flowing river of water running underneath, like ice caves with a roaring river running to some underground lake. Ours are just running to a culvert that directs the water to someone else's yard.

Some patches of the remaining snow are still quite deep - and dirty - especially in the small wood to the back of the property. The fields are mud. Especially today. Acres of clay mud muck; sucking, slooshy and oozing, trying constantly to swallow your boots. Would I disappear completely if I stood in the mucky mud too long? That mucky mud is full of the necessary nutrients for all the young plants that are already greening up.

It's a nice day to be inside, reading a book, or writing a blog. It's an even better day to be outside playing in the running riverlets (I think I made that word up), in the driveway. A shovel, rubber boots and soon to be wet and cold, garden gloves.

I love the rain.

Today it will wash all the salt and debris from the paved roads. It will flow in the ditches and across the fields and back into the ditches. The ground will soak some of it up, the rest will run to streams and lakes. It will give sustenance to the new young plants in the fields, forests, gardens and lawns and it will remove the ice cap from the smaller ponds. The geese and ducks arriving from the south, and the sandhill cranes and the blue herons will find fields ready for planting with new shoots from last year's crops coming up. Such delicacies and so very necessary for their journeys. The rain will wash us clean from the long and hard winter. It will invigorate us and will give us all hope that winter has said it's final goodbye.

I wanted to mop the floors today, but will need to wait until night. The rain will be the glueing agent for boots and dog paws, that will hold only so long as they can reach the kitchen floor, then drop the precious mud and detritus on the wood and carpeting. A fickle glue at best, but enough to make it messy in the house. I will see worse, I imagine.

Maybe I should open the doors and windows and let the rain come in to wash away the winter that still exists in my house - the stale air from closed windows and heated rooms. What fun that would be. But alas, my piano would suffer dearly and the wood floors would curl up and get moldy. They are afraid of rain. But not me. Did I tell you...

I love the Rain !