Spring has arrived now we’ve had our first rains
I don’t know about you, but for me it doesn’t feel like the start of spring until the rains come. Yes the weather is warmer, in fact it’s been a heat wave. The trees and plants have changed to their summer uniforms of greenery while blossoms indicate where the fruit trees in the local landscape are – all novelties to this newcomer. But below all this has been a layer that is yellow, brown and dusty – evidence of parched ground and the fact that the rains seem tardy in coming.
Then today after 5 pm I go for a neighbourhood walk with the dogs and hear this faint rumbling in the distance. I call out in Afrikaans to Maria, the housekeeper at the centre, as I pass her house: “Is that rain?” She says “ja” but ignorant of the area I ask is it not blasting from a local slat quarry. “No it’s rain” she tells me.
So I set off with the dogs over our nearby small hill which we call Temple Hill in the direction where I now see grey is beginning to show over the horizon. Occasionally I see small slivers in lightening in the distance. We return while I see the local bigger koppies covered in green vegetation change colour as the light around them changes.
We return home and the storm draws nearer – I hear more and more rumbles as I answer emails. The light gets darker as the sun is setting. The wind is now blowing vigorously, shaking and pushing an empty plastic cold drink bottle left by the builders and drawing up dust. Tashi the cat sits on a wall observing it all. The dogs are a bit on edge and nagging that I feed them before it rains.
I am reveling in the seasonal moment, the light, the wind but Josh who is building a wooden cabin two storeys up for us, is worried that plastic temporarily in place on its roof won’t hold up during a big storm.
Then it’s here! The rain has arrived amongst the wind – small drops showering away on the ground and on the roof. The lightning tumbles away over the hills to other farms, rivers, valleys.
It’s not yet 7 pm but something I had not even expected two hours ago has come, done its awesome thing, and gone. It’s passed over but the air is transformed – it’s cooler, fresher, more moist.
I am elated by it all – and personally refreshed and revitalized. Hopefully it will rain again, for here and for me.
