Rain!

It’s been dry this season. Abnormally dry for Maine. Frighteningly so. Beachgoers and anyone who does not have a connection with the natural world around them are happy, I’m sure. But farmers and gardeners across the state have lamented.

Getting crops to germinate in this season’s fluctuating temperatures was a challenge for many growers; it was hot and then cold and then hot, and then cold. Then once plants did sprout, keeping them watered consumed us. Making sure critters have access to water has been a daily focus for many farmers, and here at Runamuk we make multiple trips across the road in the heat of the day to the barn to ensure our chickens and bunnies have plenty of water.

But this morning I awoke in the early darkness to the sound of rain. Water, that giver of life, so essential to the natural world, to every living creature, falling from the sky. Rain! I breathed a sigh of relief and drifted back to sleep, waking again when the dawn of a new day had lightened the world to reveal a grey sky. And still the rain fell.

How joyous this morning! To see that rain falling from above. Soaking the earth, soaking my gardens, every plant I’m sure is sucking it up, guzzling rain as a man who just walked days across a barren, sunbeaten desert might do upon reaching that hidden oasis. Drink, my lovelies. Drink it up and revel in the beauty and glory of rain.