Right on cue, the weather here in Vancouver has turned to a rainy, blustery fall, and I love it. Ever since I was a little girl I have always enjoyed dark, rainy days. They rejuvenate me. I remember in grade one or two, looking out the window at the leaves blowing around, and the rain pelting down, and feeling cozy and sort of anchored, in a way. I suppose it's whatever we get used to in our lives, but some of my best days have been dark, rainy days. I have more energy when it's raining, and I am more creative on rainy days.Ray Bradbury once wrote a short story called "All Summer in a Day" about a group of children who lived on a planet where the sun came out only once every seven years, and only for two hours. The story was about a little girl named Margot who waited and waited for that day, but the other children locked her in a closet and forgot about her, and she missed the two hours of sunshine.
"Margot!"
"What?"
"She's still in the closet where we locked her."
"Margot."
They stood as if someone had driven them, like so many stakes, into the floor. They looked at each other and then looked away. They glanced out at the world that was raining now and raining and raining steadily. They could not meet each other's glances. Their faces were solemn and pale. They looked at their hands and feet, their faces down.
"Margot."
One of the girls said, "Well . . .?"
No one moved.
"Go on," whispered the girl.
They walked slowly down the hall in the sound of the cold rain. They turned through the doorway to the room in the sound of the storm and thunder, lightning on their faces, blue and terrible. They walked over to the closet door slowly and stood by it. Behind the closed door was only silence. They unlocked the door, even more slowly, and let Margot out.
Well, I don't miss the 110 degree Fahrenheit temperatures we had this summer. I love the rain. Bring it on -- I'm ready for it with my yellow rain slicker, my yellow puddle jumpers and my yellow umbrella with the blue flowers. I have been busy with other things and so I have been absent from my computer for a few days, and I haven't had a chance to visit all of my favorite blogs, but I will be over to visit you soon. In the meantime, here is a little video I took of the rain this morning. Welcome to Vancouver.
17 comments:
What happens to Margot? I'm dying for the end of the story.
I wish we had that kind of rain here in Israel!
Look at it bucketing down! We rarely get rain like that here in Colorado, except for this summer, which was very rainy. It made for a nice change of pace.
I'm with Wenderina, now I'm fixated on Margot's reaction.
I've read so much Bradbury, I'm sure I've read it but I can't remember. Oh curse my feeble brain. Luckily, there's this handy tool called the internet, with these cute little search engines.
Wenderina, if you go to Yahoo's homepage and type in All Summer in a Day Ray Bradbury one of the links that appears will give you the story in a download document.
I'd include the link, but literally it links you to a .doc from an edu and there's no webpage addy, it just automatically downloads.
And I found a link that contains the link text, and a link to the short film :-)
http://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2008/02/all-summer-in-day.html
I love the rain as well. Love being cozy on the couch listening to it tink on the roof and drip into pots on the porch. The smell during rain is always delightful.
As children, my brothers, friends and I would all run outside during the warm summer rains and play. We would have leaf races on the side of the road where the mini streams would form from the rushing rain waters. Those are times i will never forget.
I love dark rainy days,curled up with a good mystery!
read a good book. take a nap. enjoy! just don't get 20 inches like Atlanta did!!!!
Jo,
I think you meant to say "that the sun comes out only once in seven years" and not the rain. A slight typo there.
Love this post and especially the video! I am a lover of rain!
Linda
Wenderina, that is the end of the story, sadly.
DUTA, yes, it is lovely and refreshing, I must say. :-)
Alane, thank you...! :-) Yes the story is online, and people can read it. It's a very short, short story, and one of my Bradbury favorites.
Flowrgirl1, oh, that sounds wonderful. I remember one summer when it didn't rain for months, and then when it finally did, I went outside and stood in the rain, and all up and down the street, everyone else was doing the same thing. :-)
Brandywine, oh yes, dark rainy days are the best, aren't they?
Deb, I know!! The folks in Atlanta have had awful floods...! My gosh...!
LGS, Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have changed it. I didn't even notice. :-)
Linda, isn't that rain something? I love it too!
Your tree house is so beautiful in the rain! Great video! And I love your puddle jumpers! Cheers, Jo!
Marguerite, I love my puddle jumpers too. They're very sexy. :-)
Maybe Margot would say: "Oh why did you wake me. I was enjoying my nap. I missed the sun! Oh never mind I prefer the rain anyway!
I dont mind the rain unless I'm forced to be out in it!
Your Vancouver rain sounds beautiful and so... so... SO CLEAN! Are you ever tempted to grab a bar of soap and take a "shower" when it's pouring? LOL!
That's more like the monsoon season. The rain is really hissing down, absolutely hissing!
I love to hear rain as long as it stops the next day and the sun comes out, as it does here.
However the rain in Spain stayed mainly on the mainland yesterday where massive flooding resulted from torrential rain all over the south and east coast, including Mallorca. In Burriana they had 300 liters per square meter. A total disaster there and the subject of non-stop news videos on Spanish TV.
However I see on the Kat Kam that Vancouver looks dry today.
Jo, your video ooks just like the weather we had on the east coast - most of the summer. Don't get me wrong I love rain, but this year we had way too much! I do understand what you mean about the cozy comforts of indoors on a rainy day. I used to enjoy them too when I was a sprout.
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