A Rainy Afternoon

I got my wish, a nice slow, steady one-half inch of rain fell for about an hour this afternoon. There was no wind, no lightning, just rain.

Now I can truthfully answer my garden visitors when they ask, "Do you ever just sit and enjoy your garden?"

Today I did. 

Carl and I went shopping Wednesday afternoon on a whim.  The temperatures were in the upper 80's and the humidity was dreadful so I drove to Carl's workplace and we took my car on a little adventure. 

 First we had to stop at a welding shop for a bit and chat up the personnel about my new plasma cutter, but soon we found ourselves at a big box store cruising through the garden department. Everything is on sale right now and we were sorely tempted to bring everything home, but we stopped ourselves.  First find a place in the garden and THEN bring the plant home.  This is the first year we don't have dozens of pots behind the garage waiting for their turn to be planted.  We're so proud of ourselves.  

Coming back in from the garden department, we wandered through the outdoor living furniture.  For some reason these retro-looking chairs caught my eye.

 Introducing our new Sitting and Enjoying the Garden Chairs.

 I was tired and my feet hurt.  So old Graydilocks that I am, I timidly ventured into the display.  Just an aside here, I'm not a very brash person and I dislike causing a scene.  Now I realize that sitting on lawn furniture in a store does not constitute a riot, but for me, that's about as close as I come to civil disobedience.  I furtively glanced about, there was no one nearby to notice, so I carefully sat down.  

And promptly fell in love.

"Oh, wow, Carl, sit down a minute," I said.

Carl and I are very much alike; he glanced around first and then took the other seat.  

"Ok, these are coming home with us," he said, noting they were on clearance.  "I wonder if they have any more in stock?" and before I realized where he was going, he was off to ask a clerk.

Soon the clerk returned and said, no, they had no more in the warehouse, but if we wanted, we could buy the display models.  Carl wasted no time getting a cart and off we went to the checkout with our new chairs.  We opted not to buy the table, though it was cute; budgetary concerns and all that, you know.

As soon as we left the comfort of the air-conditioned store another reality hit us.  In my quest for staying fit, we often park the car great distances from stores.  Yesterday was no exception; we'd parked at one store and walked over a quarter mile to get to the one we were currently stranded in front of with two new lawn chairs.  

"Guess what?" Carl said.  "The car is way over there somewhere," as he pointed off into the hazy distance.  

"Guess what?" I said, "Since it's my silly idea to walk everywhere, I'll go get the car and you stand guard on our chairs."

Off I went across the steaming parking lot in search of our sedan.  It took me awhile to locate it (of course I'm not going to hit the car alarm button, that would cause a scene) and finally I was on my way out to the service road and over to the store where Carl was waiting.  

Except he wasn't.

I circled the store twice, no husband with two red chairs.  C'mon, he can't be that hard to locate, I wasn't gone that long, was I?  Finally I found him halfway to the parking lot our car was originally parked in;  he'd figured out a way to carry the chairs and was on his way to meet me.  

Luckily we could fit our purchases into the backseat of the Pontiac and we headed back to Carl's work to pick up the Oldsmobile and the thirteen mile drive home.

When we got home we did our traditional wabi-sabi walk through the garden, the walk where we're not allowed to see anything needing work like weeds and sagging rock work, just take in the beauty of the moment.  We were hastened through our jaunt by the hordes of mosquitoes intent on making a meal of us, so it was high time to retreat to the screen porch.  Carl put the new chairs on the porch, grabbed a glass of root beer for himself and a glass of ice water for me and we sat and enjoyed the sunset. 

Sunset to our west, not last night, but last week.  But still, it's a sunset. 

This morning I grabbed Mom's medications and gassed up the lawnmower, intent on getting her lawn mowed before rain arrived.  I stopped in to visit with Mom after I was done in an hour or so, and suddenly noticed her east window was spotted with rain drops, oh, boy!  Grab the lawnmower and drive like the wind (ok, eight miles an hour) home in the pelting rain.  Though I was soaking wet by the time I had the mower in the shed, it felt so good to hear raining hitting the barn roof.

And where did I go right afterward?  

To the screen porch to sit on my new chair and watch Mother Nature's perfect irrigation system at work.

Perfection would have been Carl sitting in the other chair....

 A bunch of views from my porch perch just as the rain was increasing:

I often wonder if Impressionist painters saw a garden through a wet screen and decided to recreate it in oil?

Ann called me and we had a nice chat while it rained.  She said, "Now you can tell people that you do sometimes sit and look at the garden."

Yes, I can.  

But with these chairs around, I might have to be chased off the porch to work in the garden again.  

Carl may have created a monster.  

Looking for Karen?  You know where you'll find her.

Check the porch.