Ok, this one is for those of you who purport to be jealous of my new found Nirvana. Every silver lining has a cloud ---- or a month of them. It is now the rainiest month on record for Maine. Over 12 inches in the midcoast. The roses and peonies are drooping and exhausted. The tomatoes and basil are limping toward the hope of sunshine. Other plantings are of course loving the rain forest effects, thriving and soaring. The good news? My basement is dry(!!!) and the vapor barrier that I laid down last week over my dirt/gravel floor seems to be helping hold down moisture. The patience of all is tested. The newspaper talks about foot long leopard slugs, the seeds in my birdfeeder are all sprouting, all the doors and windows are swollen and sticking. The Department of Marine Resources closed the entire Maine coast to shellfishing because the heavy rains are flushing contaminants into near-shore waters and the red-tide phytoplankton is surging. It is hard to tell when it is misting or just heavy fogging. The rains are more obvious. Late last night, to cap this month of rain, we had a severe thunderstorm. No stranger to thunderstorms in Virginia - when extreme heat and shifting fronts regularly erupt in thunder and lightening and downpours, this one followed but another cool and misty day, and was a more unusual phenomenon - or maybe just the last straw. The dog was freaked by it, making me get out of bed to see if maybe the water was rushing into the house or something. Alas, all was well, and my dehumidifier along with my whole house air exchange system was cranking hard to do what it could to keep high humidity levels outside. I actually fell back asleep to a marvellous dream, and slept until 8:15 AM this morning - the latest since my arrival here 6 weeks ago. I am in no hurry for my morning walk today, but relish a big breakfast with the fresh farm eggs I bought from a coworker. I wonder if the hens' nests are molding.I have a little creek (aka drainage ditch) in my backyard that surges and swells, soaking the hostas and bog plants that I have planted there. The neighborhood children (aka hoolilgans) have a history of riding their bikes through my yard and over my little bridge to the next street. Despite many 'requests' to not play in my yard, they returned yesterday, somehow not understanding the firm NO I had issued only minutes before. I imagine myself finally attaining the role of Cloris Leachman, the ageing eccentric who lives alone and shuns the world in the movie "Prancer" -screaming "my floribundae! my floribundae!" as they sail through her gardens on sleds. They plaintively tried to assure me that my yard was the ONLY place that they could play, the youngest adding that maybe they could LIVE there and have their own little brook. How cool would THAT be??? Bicycle mud tracks, strewn candy wrappers, my fire wood thrown into the brook and flooding my gardens. I try to assure them that they are very smart and strong children (thinking noisy, insolent, unbridled, audacious) and will surely find somewhere else to play. OK, this weather is not bringing out the best in any of us.......
On my eventual walk, I took these pictures, trying to capture the essence of sog. Accompany them, if you will, by the steady drone of foghorns and the sound of water rushing through the sewer lines as you pass the aging iron street drains. For a few flickering seconds, the sky seemed to lighten. Would the sun make a guest appearance.....today?? Tho the heavens were grey, I swear I saw my shadow. I turned around three times to see if I was only imagining. I wonder if anyone is looking. If I am experiencing the polar opposite of the desert mirage. I pull off my rain parka (one of 6 varying styles and warmth that hang now in my mud room). When it is humid and low 60s, it is hard to tell if your body is chill and damp or hot and clammy. Splashing through a puddle in my treasured early pea green rain galoshes that Corrina rejected as a gift too garish, I return home to treasure another day off, a good book, domestic projects, and a prayer that the sun WILL return.....one of these tomorrows.
