A Day of Rain in May

~ rabbitpatchdiary.com

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Schools are closed today, due to stormy weather.  The rabbit patch is wet and puddles stand all about the territory.  It is mid morning and the lamps are still on, as clouds are thick and heavy with more rain.  I was up early as usual and the sound of the rain on any other day would have begged me not to stir, but last night we were warned of circumstances like tornadoes-so I fixed coffee and watched it rain.

Thankfully, there has been little wind-of course, the roof sprang a leak and we had to retrieve a pot from the pantry, that I would rather be cooking soup in.  I suppose that is the next repair.  “It is always something” rings true at the rabbit patch.  It is hard to complain, though, when the yard is full of flowers.  It is hard to complain, when you live in the dear Farm Life community surrounded by kind neighbors.  It does not seem right to grumble when I see my boxer, Cash and two naughty kittens dozing by the morning table.

Kyle and Christian are home, so I have found another pot and soup is simmering.  I decided on tomato and basil and the effect of the aroma is a perfect companion to a rainy day.  There is so much to do on a rainy week day and because it isn’t common for me to be home-well, I want to do all of it.  I want to write and read. I want to cook and watch an old movie.  It is the perfect day for napping, but it is also the perfect day to cook.  I would like to watch the irises grow, too.  It is a delightful quandary, to be in.

In May, children find kittens-rain or shine.  It has always been so.  I remember my own children finding kittens.  You would have thought they had found gold.  How in the world, they drug kittens from under the barn or from a hollow log,EVERY year was beyond me.  I was always caught up in their excitement initially, but then there was finding homes and God forbid one got sick-and they always did.  The mother cats slipped back to their old life and never looked back.  I would see them sashaying across the yard or napping in the shade.  They ran in any direction, except mine, when I called to them.  So, I was left with kittens, while the children looked for more.  You will never convince a child that finding kittens is not a good thing.  To them, it  is nothing short of a miracle.  Today, some mother will allow her children outside to play in the puddles.  She should know, they are liable to find kittens.  I myself, seem to find kittens ever so often-and not because I have searched the trenches.  A few years ago, just as the bank was closing, I walked into the parking lot and about tripped over a box of kittens!  Some one had “made a deposit” it seemed.  oh, how I begged the tellers for help.  I pleaded and begged, but I ended up with a box of kittens, anyway.  A few years ago, on the first day of school,  I found another box of kittens in the parking lot.  Little children forgot, they didn’t want to go back to school, that year.  They gathered around the box and thought I was surely a fairy, instead of a violin teacher.  Of course, I can stay right at the rabbit patch and find a kitten.  It wasn’t too long ago that the wild kitten, we named  Moon Shine, found us.  He lays now, in perfect bliss by the window fan as I write in the diary.

When I was growing up, May was the month, children were allowed to go barefoot-and not a minute before.  My grandmother laid down the law and Mama agreed.  I thought it must be a sin and was probably in the Bible.  When it was finally May,  southern children celebrated this liberty with great enthusiasm.  Someone always got stung that  first day or the pony would step on their foot.  Once my sister got an awful cut on a metal post.  Going barefoot, was not for the faint of heart.  By July, we only wore shoes to go to town and again every Sunday. I suppose, I am too civilized now, as I rarely go outside barefoot.  I will ruin bedroom shoes, dependably wearing them to the garden  or  to the clothesline.  Otherwise I am in garden shoes.  Still, I remember that in May, I am allowed to go barefoot.  

 Dearest Diary,  I am glad for a rainy day  to watch the irises grow.  I am glad for the chance to write about the world in May, now and long ago.   I am even glad for kittens in small hands presented like the rare treasures, they really are.  . . I am glad for the pot that catches the rain and I am glad for the pot that simmers on the stove, too.

 

27 thoughts on “A Day of Rain in May”

  2. While reading your post, I pretended to be off from school. I’m retired and shouldn’t need a day off, but I’d rather watch the rain and smell soup with you than deal with car insurance. As to going barefoot, I stepped on a big spider barefooted and hardly ever went without shoes again. Barefoot rules not longer applied to me. My iris plants send greetings to yours.

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  3. A lot of us had many rainy days and were watching for tornadoes. Luckily no bad weather bothered us too much. I enjoyed watching a movie and baking a blueberry cake and making homemade soup. Nice to be indoors on rainy days. Enjoyed your lovely post and your childhood memories. 🙂

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  5. When there was a sudden overnight snow in Portland, OR, my daughter and her husband had a day off from work. Schools were closed too. I love tomato basil soup. I made it from scratch a few times. I planted some irises before the winter rain was over, but probably still didn’t get enough water to grow this year!!

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  6. Ma’am,
    I love your post as usual. I could hear the rain as I read.
    I love rain too.
    I know the feeling of finding kittens. I have never been a cat person but its surprising that cats and kittens find me.
    I have a whole bunch of strays outside my house now, waiting tor their breakfast.
    ” I am left with the kittens, while they go looking for more”.
    What beautiful writing.
    Susie

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  9. So many good things in this post! Glad you made it through the storms with only a leaky roof. Anytime it rains hard here our roof leaks also….right along our woodstove pipe. We just keep a bucket back there on a constant basis.
    My youngest son was a master of finding stray kittens…and they somehow always made their way into the house.
    My cousin and I always dreaded the first day of school when we had to wear shoes for most of the day. We also looked forward to warm weather when we could lose the shoes and run barefoot. I would hate to think of running down the gravel road barefoot now! My feet are way to tender and not calloused enough anymore.
    Thank you for all the great memories you brought back.

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    1. My older boys have been fussing about my roof and so I pray the roof gets fixed this day-I think it might be hard to sell a house with a leaking roof! I bet every country kid has found half the kittens in spring!! haha! and as much fun as it used to be to go barefoot-I am like you again) my feet are too tender. I do like to stragicialy walk in new grass though. thank you darling Faye!

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  10. My grandparents lived in the country, surrounded by my great-uncle’s farmland. He (the g-uncle) was a dairy farmer meaning he had a barn, with a hayloft, with barn-cats who had… kittens! I tried so many times to connive my ay into keeping one right up to smuggling one in my hoody-sweatshirt. Though I was convinced I was as stealthy as ‘007’ they were always onto me. It was, in fact they who successfully conned me… “We’ll leave him a nice little tupperware dish with some food and a bowl for milk & you can play with him next time you’re up.” … A barn cat has no such loyalty and I never ever did have a cat. 🙂 sounds like a lovely day Michele!

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    1. that is a funny story-I could only claim barn cats as a child, myself-if I caught a glimpse of them in the day, it was a big deal. Well, i am a dog lover but now i love a cat too-i have to as God keeps sending me cats! ha!

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  11. Beautiful. We are still awaiting flowers on our irises. Not long now. The best barefoot experience I had was standing on the frozen lawn at midnight in my dressing gown and barefeet looking up at a clear sky shining with stars while waiting for my cat to decide it was time to come indoors for the night. The sensation of feeling like my feet were going to freeze and wanting to run inside was quickly followed by a wonderful warming sensation that spread up through the soles of my feet to my ankles and made my toes go deep pink. I was surrounded by the entire universe in total silence and I could see my breath freeze against the black sky.

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