The blackbird has a song that is made for rain. Perhaps it is the mournful tone of its tune, or the way it pierces the stillness before a storm. Perhaps it is the way the song haunts me, so sadly beautiful it makes my heart ache. You’ll usually find the blackbird at the highest point in a landscape, trilling its lament. For as long as I remember, I’ve associated the bird with rain. Its song is loud and lonely in the quiet before the rain comes and in the blurred aftermath among the soft drip of raindrops from the leaves. When the landscape is quiet and expectant and I hear the blackbird sing, I know it’s about to rain.
My first memory of writing takes place in the rain. I must be about ten and I’ve been to Brownies on a Friday night. I’m with my father and we’re waiting for the bus home. Dad stands watch outside while I sit in a bus shelter, dark and rain-washed, writing my version of a Nancy Drew mystery in a black, hard-backed exercise book with red corners. I must have written stories and essays before for school, but this is the first time I remember writing for fun. The story wasn’t my own, but something in it made me pick up a pen and try to write it in my own words.
Since then, I have always associated rain with creativity. Perhaps it’s my watery soul, but there’s something about rain that never fails to inspire me. When the sky darkens, my body responds. There’s a tingle, an expectation, a melancholy, that makes me want to write. I prefer to be tucked up behind glass, preferably with nowhere to go and nothing to do. With rain that is heavy enough to patter on the windows, drum on the roof and blur the landscape beyond the glass, like melting wax oozing down the pane. Or to be walking among trees, where I can hear the thrum of the rain on the leaves and smell the wet vegetation.
I appreciate rain in all its guises. The glowering sky of a downpour or the bright eerie light heralding a thunderstorm. A rising wind bringing rain on its tails. The fat, heavy droplets that stain the ground with splodges, or the drench of fine summer rain. I love the gurgle of rain in the gutters and rushing down drainpipes. The swirl of water on tarmac and the dance of ripples in puddles. Rain has its own discordant melody: a humming, stuttering, hissing song . It isn’t always easy when you’re in it, particularly the needles of rain that have the promise of winter in them. But rain soaks the senses, so it’s no surprise that it stimulates creativity.
Rain wakes up the land. Deep beneath the earth, seeds that lie dormant sigh in exhilaration as the rain drenches them. Shoots unfold, desiccated plants expand and fungi fruit. Rain wreaths the earth with its own scent: the brassy petrichor of soil, stone and parched vegetation. The scent of rain is a hint on the air, just like the blackbird’s song, telling me that the storm is coming. And my creative instinct stretches and flexes its muscles, waiting for the deluge.
And when the storm is over, rain brings the world into focus. The world is softer, but more pronounced. There is a stillness after rain, just as there is a stillness before it. Spent raindrops create their own drowsy percussion. The voices of birds, quieted by the storm, re-appear jubilantly. Colours are more vibrant and the musky scent of the earth simmers in the air. The end of the storm feels celebratory, perhaps only because the rain is over or perhaps because it has revived the landscape. And for the length of a storm, my creativity has been revived too.
Wonderful photos and tribute to the subtle beauty and life in rain. Thanks Harula!
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Thanks Brad, I find weather endlessly inspiring 🙂
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The simple joys in life. 🙂
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I was in Brownies too! I enjoyed reading about your first memory of writing. I remember rushing home from school to make up stories with my stuffed animals and later starting to write down stories 😉
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Thanks Christy, those animals must have made a great audience for you to become the writer you’ve become 🙂
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I love this piece, Andrea. I remember a night spent in a hut in Cameroon which had a tin roof – the rain was loud, and then louder, and then so loud that I couldn’t imagine that it could get worse, and then it did. And then it stopped, and the frogs and crickets started their own symphony. I remember a radio programme where a blind man said he could ‘see’ the shape of a bush by the sound that the rain made when it fell on it. And I love how fresh the colours are after a shower, and how perky the plants seem. Thank you for the inspiration!
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Thanks Vivienne, that must have been a wonderful rainstorm in Cameroon – we regularly go to a cabin in the forest that has a metal roof and it is amazing when it rains. I love the thought of being able to ‘see’ through the way the rain falls.
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What a lovely memory. The coziness of rain does make one want to stay indoors and be creative. Whenever there is a snowstorm, I am very creative: finishing an entire painting in one day, for example. Here’s wishing you many rainy, creative days!
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Thanks Letizia, it is the season for rain! But I love snow too, in fact, I love most kinds of stormy weather 🙂
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Such a lovely post, Andrea. You remind me of how special the rain became to me when I lived in New Mexico. In the desert (even high desert) rain is a significant thing. While here it is just more damp, more drear. I loved how you said “And when the storm is over, rain brings the world into focus.” Here’s to focus. Mega hugs.
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Thanks Teagan, it’s bad enough waiting for rain in a rainy country when it hasn’t come for a long time, I can imagine the joy of it in the desert.
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A lovely piece, thanks Andrea. It stirred many memories and feelings. A startled blackbird in a hedge is one of my earliest memories. We were visiting Great Aunt Josephine. It was evening. I can’t remember what Aunt Josephine looked like, but I always associated the blackbird’s call with Aunt Josephine and evenings! It sort of gathers into an almost overwhelming nostalgia.
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Lovely to see you Bruce. My childhood is full of the sound of blackbirds and their rackety alarm call and the way their tail rises as they clatter onto the grass. I love the memory of Aunt Josephine!
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You make me want it to rain–even though we’ve just endured a few days of it!! I love your perspective on rain. I love rain as long as I don’t have to go anywhere. I’m not a fan of driving in it or having to run errands in it. But the sound of rain when I’m cozy inside, writing, with a mug of tea, or even watching a movie, yes, love!
I think you’re right about the connection to creativity. Soaking the senses–perfect!!
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Thanks Kate, yes, it’s always better to be tucked up cosily inside, though I like to walk in it too when it’s not the freezing kind!
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A beautiful homage to your creative juices, Andrea. You’d have enjoyed our Friday and Saturday which were soggy with 30 cm of rain!
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Thanks Sue, I’m sure I would have! It was raining this morning when I was lying in bed, but all gone when we went out for our walk – just the after-rain vibrancy of the world.
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I love rain and I love this post. 🙂 ❤
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Thank you Natalie 🙂
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My pleasure Andrea👍😊
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My youngest and i share a love of rainy days. There is no pressure to be outside, active. They are days meant for contemplation, reading a good book, sipping tea by a fire. I love your ruminations on rain–as usual, you put it poetically.
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Thanks Kristine, yes, sounds perfect to me!
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Join us:).
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I can see that your muse has burst forth in a cloud burst. Some of that rain you must have sent my way. What a beautiful post and it is true. Mind you my melancholy becomes my muse quite often but I can see that the rain can wash away all those doubts and fears. I do love to hear the rain on the skylight ( and hope there are no leaks lol). You have made music with the rain and I’m totally inspired. We have red winged blackbirds here and I’m not sure if the song is the same but they do seem to call an alarm.
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I hope the rain I sent your way was the inspiring kind Cybele and that your new house has lots of cosy corners to enjoy the rain in!
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it does!! thank you!
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Love this poetic prose singing a beautiful song of rain…I could almost hear the rhythmic fall on the leaves and roof, softly touching my heart and blending into my soul. Thank you for writing about the beauty of rain. 🙂
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Thank you Balroop for your lovely comments.
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Andrea, this is a marvelous post! You capture so much of my experience as well, for which I am grateful. For so much of the past year we longed for rain and the world seemed out of joint and creativity, in some way, inaccessible.Such a relief to have rain!
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Thanks Michael, I live in a rainy country and we have had our share of rain in recent months, but I’m glad the sunny summer days have passed and the autumn rains have arrived.
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Beautiful post, Andrea. Your memories reminded me of the first book I purchased. It was a rainy Friday night and my father had taken me and my sister to the bookstore where I bought Stuart Little.
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Thanks Jill, I’m glad it brought back a happy memory 🙂
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Oh Andrea, you never fail to stir my soul with your beautifully descriptive writing and photographs. What a wonderful memory of you and your dad ❤ I too love the rain, in fact, it is raining as I read your delightful post. There is something quite delicious about being tucked up inside writing to the sound of rainfall outside. My daughter listens to a continuous soundtrack of rain and soft thunder to help calm her anxiety as she sleeps. When I walk past her room and hear it, whatever the weather outside, I always feel a wonderful comfort. So lovely to read you again my friend xxx
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Thanks Sherri, it is a vivid memory. I used to have a clock with thunderstorm and rain sounds – I used to wake up to an alarm of rain every morning, much more soothing than a normal alarm!
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What a wondeful clock! And I forgot to mention, love your blackbird too. Gorgeous photos…
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Gosh, this beautiful, lyrical post Andrea conjures up so many memories … particularly rainstorms in a Tuscan summer – such short, determined downpours after which the air was full of the most glorious scents.
I have never thought of rain linked to creativity. But you are absolutely right. Rain is energy, survival, sustenance, baptism in movement. And creativity is exactly that.
I love, love, love the image of the dormant seeds being exhilarated.
Fabulous!
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Thanks Francesca. We always used to take holidays abroad in September and were almost guaranteed to get a fantastic thunderstorm wherever we were. I love the way you describe rain ‘baptism in movement’.
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Such a beautiful ode to rain you have written here, Andrea! All the sounds and stillness, and the blackbird song. Rain brings the world into focus indeed. Even the air looks brighter after the rain. I would love to put on my wellies and walk through the wet fallen leaves listening to the blackbird song, and never look back 🙂
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Thanks Inese, my walk today was after the rain, through golden fallen leaves 🙂
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❤
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Beautiful piece. Rain does it for me too, as does fog and storm. The heat of summer always dries up my juices 😦
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Thanks Rachael, yep, any kind of stormy weather stirs my creativity.
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This is beautifully written. You had me seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling a rainy day. I will remember this for tomorrow, when it is forecast to rain here. Right now, it’s gorgeous outside … crisp air and a cobalt sky.
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Thanks Lori, I hope you can get some inspiration from that rain tomorrow!
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Such awe-inspiring writing, Andrea, about the rain. Thoughts like these are beautiful and very evocative: “The fat, heavy droplets that stain the ground with splodges, or the drench of fine summer rain. I love the gurgle of rain in the gutters and rushing down drainpipes. The swirl of water on tarmac and the dance of ripples in puddles. Rain has its own discordant melody: a humming, stuttering, hissing song.”
And you liked Nancy Drew mysteries too! I think I must have read them all. I can glimpse partial titles such as “… in the old oak tree…” How lucky we were to have a girl detective to be one of our heroes.
Now, here’s a question: do blackbirds always sing before the rain?
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Thanks very much Cynthia. Yes, I liked Nancy Drew – I don’t remember any of the stories but I do remember that in the one I ‘re-wrote’ her aunt was doing some baking in the kitchen! As for your question, I don’t know – the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds say that blackbirds typically sing after rain, but as for before rain….in my world they always seem to 🙂
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Beautifully written Andrea. I enjoy running in the rain, not trying to escape from the weather but being part of it.
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Thanks Roy, it’s good to be part of it, especially if it’s keeping you cool 🙂
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Me, too, Andrea. And said so lovingly and in lovely prose, too. Back when I was more athletic, I even liked jogging/running in rain, not minding the mud (until afterward). Night and rain, as long as I don’t have to drive, are near-heavenly to me.
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Yep, night and rain, just those two words even sound atmospheric!
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I love your writing .. And photos. You have such a magical way with words. A delightful read 😃
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Thanks Julie 🙂
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Beautiful post, Andrea. 🙂
As a child I always had interesting thoughts about rains. The water droplets oozing from the sky always fills me with joy and wonderment.
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Thanks Norma, it is a wonder that we sometimes take for granted!
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Wonderful words! Nature is our teacher, isn’t it. Thanks for sharing.
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It is indeed, thanks Cecilia.
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I love how you described the blackbird’s song and then transitioned into the rain. Beautiful, transportive writing. I like to hunker down in the rain to read or to watch movies. I like having an excuse to be still. 🙂
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Thanks Kourtney, I imagine you need that time to be still from your busy schedule 🙂
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Gorgeous words and photos, Andrea.
Here’s to revived creativity for all of us writers. 🙂
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Thanks Jennifer 🙂
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Our body is 70% water. And yes, rain nourishes. =)
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Yes indeed we all have watery souls 🙂
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A beautiful piece, Andrea! You describe the rain so well. Many of my family members are rain enthusiasts, and of course I enjoy it too, though not as much as they do. I am most alive in the sun. My mom and bonus dad (stepfather) moved up to Washington just to live in an area that receives a lot of rain. My husband and I have been married for thirty-six years, but when we were dating, he came to pick me up and was surprised when first my mom, then my bonus dad, came in, euphoric that it was raining, opened up the curtains and pulled up their chairs to the window so they could sit an watch the rain. When we left, he said, “I have never seen anyone so excited about the rain before.” As for writing weather, for me it is wind, which provides no comfort at all, but which provokes me to write, perhaps as a defense. Here in our region of Southern California, we are having little rain though we need it, and the Santa Ana winds, as they are called, are fierce. At any rate, your writing here is beautiful, distinguished, and truly memorable. Thank you!
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Hi Carla, it’s good to see you. Now that’s commitment to rain! I love the wind too, in fact any kind of stormy weather – sunny weather is when I feel least inspired, though it’s still good to feel the heat of the sun after the winter.
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Andrea – I never tire of talking about the weather, writing about it, or hearing about it! Sensitive to micro-environments, the weather is significant to my moods, though not the sole determinor. My father liked the sunshine, and I have pondered my similarities to him in that respect. Conclusion: I feel mobile and energetic. Rain makes me feel slow, quiet, and sedentary, which can be quite nice sometimes. As for inspiration, the wind will do it every time, for good or ill.
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I also feel more energetic in the sun, everything has its season, as they say, I think the rain aligns to my introvert soul 🙂
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Isn’t the weather just wonderful? So many moods, perspectives, and feelings come with each change in the air. Here in my area, the Inland Empire valley of Southern California, we had a refreshing two days of moist, dark clouds, but little rain. Then, as is usually the case, the dry winds came through blowing them all away, bringing days too bright to glance out, and an odd feeling of annoyance (due to the positive ions, I think). My bonus dad is so attached to the rain (my brother too) that they are always in great spirits on rainy days. For them, the sun brings on a bland state of mind. Interesting that we have such nuances in response to our environments!
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Andrea, what a beautiful homage to rain, not to mention the blackbird. Here, skies are darkening and marbled as I read your post, just the subtlest hints of a breeze brushing the trees, But whereas the rain stirs your creativity, it makes me want to grab my book and curl up in my most comfy chair and read.
I am so excited to see you reading “The Outermost House”. I finally read this – after being inspired by one of his quotes over 15 years ago – and did a short blog post on it, if interested. https://stilladreamer.wordpress.com/2015/08/23/traveling-to-cape-cod-with-henry/
I was deeply drawn in to his telling of every aspect of life and weather on the Cape. I have no doubt you’re enjoying it – it seems a perfect fit for you. Jeanne
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Thanks Jeanne – there are plenty of times when curling up with a book is what I want to do in the rain too 🙂 I’ve been over to visit your blog post on The Outermost House – I’m on the last chapter and have loved reading about it, particularly his atmospheric writing on night on the beach and the travels of the coastguard men through the night.
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I enjoyed this beautiful post very much, Andrea. “When the landscape is quiet and expectant and I hear the blackbird sing, I know it’s about to rain” is wonderful. It reminds me of my grandmother and my mother talking about birds. I remember them saying that sparrows fluttering from tree to tree at harvest was the sign of hope, and cooing doves were the music of love on wedding days, birthdays, and even after funerals as continuing love for the one who has gone on before us.
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Thanks Marylin, I love the lore of birds your family passed on.
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Andrea, your writing voice is lovely. I enjoyed the weaving of nostalgia throughout this piece. 🍃
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Thank you Gwen.
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You have captured in words and images two of my favourite things in life….the blackbird singing and rain. For me there is nothing quite so beautiful than to hear the blackbird’s magnificent song. Rain is calming for me, and yes very conducive to creativity.
Thank you for such a lovely post, and for again starting my week on such a good footing…Janet:)
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Thanks Janet, it is a wonderful song isn’t it 🙂
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Yes it is:) – enjoy the weekend..:)x
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Yes, and I, too, loved the travels of the coastguard and reading about the lights to warn ships to stay away from shore … it was a book I couldn’t put down.
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I’ve finished it now Jeanne and it’s definitely one I’ll remember, I’d like my own outermost house!
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Gosh Andrea you are so talented, your descriptive way with nature leaves me wanting more. Mary Oliver comes to mind.
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Thank you for that lovely compliment Kath!
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I so enjoyed your celebration of rain, Andrea — your writing is a pleasure to read. As I read this lovely essay, oddly enough, a downpour occurred outside. At the moment I am on the wet side of the Big Island in Hawaii, a place where it rains like no other on earth. It rains hard for 2 min., then the sun comes out; and this happens throughout the day. Your memorable words will stay with me as I enjoy the rain….
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Thanks Jet, I’d love to experience a ‘big rain’ like that. I hope you’re enjoying the wildlife out there.
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lovely images, delightful thoughts… i too love rain, although i will never argue with the sun breaking through in its turn.
that click of the water dumping into the barrel – love the action in that wonderful water dance. thanks for sharing.
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Thanks Kris, that was some downpour – on a day when the sun also broke through regularly 🙂
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Such a sweet ode to the blackbird and the rain! I associate the blackbird with spring approaching and the lengthening of the days. I work at the airport and that means iworking shifts, often early. Cycling to the station at 5am is not exactly fun, especially if it rains. But at the end of winter and the beginning of spring it becomes magical… because of the blackbird! There is one in every tree you cycle past, singing its joy about spring. A wonderful choir in the rarely quiet city that never fails to touch my heart!
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Although I don’t envy your early morning cycle, the time of year you describe does sound magical. We walk the dog in the park at 6am each morning and even in the darkness the blackbirds are gently calling.
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You must be a morning person! But I’m sure it’s very nice in the park at that time.
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Not at all, we go at that time to fit the walk in before work, but yes, it is nice at that time in the morning!
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In a wonderful second of serendipity, I arrive to your post here just as a trove of blackbirds appear on a tree near my writing window, JUST AS IT BEGINS TO RAIN. I’m listening to the pitter pat and the birdsong, reading your words and getting goosebumps. However, there are so many black birds they’re making a racket, not a sweet mournful rain song.
Your words and photos here are just so lovely. Yes, I love to write and read when it’s raining outside. The sense of solitude, in comfort and safety while the rain falls outside, leads to a release of the creative soul.
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Aha, sent you a little blackbird magic – maybe a little too much 🙂 Thanks Pam, I hope you enjoyed reading in the rain.
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I’ve been writing a scene this week of someone running across a street when the rain has just started falling, when a storm has been brewing all day, that feeling of relief and celebration. You’ve done a much better job of writing about rain than I have! This is beautiful.
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Thanks Vicky!
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There’s a blackbird that sits on my roof singing every evening throughout spring and summer. It is such a beautiful song and one that my dog appreciates, too. She sits in the middle of the lawn listening intently to the sweet sound.
I agree that there’s something inspiring about being indoors when rain is pattering at the window. Also, it’s strangely cosy walking in the woods when they’re in full leaf, with the rain pitter-pattering on the verdant canopy above.
A wonderful post as usual, Andrea 🙂
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Thanks Sarah. It’s good to know the dog appreciates the blackbird’s song too 🙂
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“Rain soaks the senses … seeds sigh in exhilaration …”
Wonderful expressions of the alive earth we live on.
Let it rain, let it rain!
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Thanks Diane, and it has been! November has been a month of rain for us so far, but of course I think that’s a good thing!
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I can just picture you writing way back then, Andrea.
This is a delightful post and I love all the tones.
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Thanks Jean.
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Great…☺🙂
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Thanks Eliza.
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