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Torrential for hours, rain has been cacophonous all night. The few seconds it took me to dash out and fetch the morning paper left me very wet. The cat has been nagging me all night as well. I wonder if she's trying to tell me we are soon to be in need of an ark? In the mountains, probably not. But if the wind that lately rose keeps blowing the pines, rooted as they are in saturated ground, we're apt to need candles. I'm surprised we haven't lost our electricity already. Now is when I kick myself for not getting that backup power supply for the computer yet. I'm leery of using the thing when power outages become as likely as they are now. At least four more days of this are on the way, too. The year will be dissolved.
Dec. 28th, 2005
For a few minutes, I cast something very like a shadow. Briefly, I saw glittering behind the screen of bare oaks what might have been the actual orb of the sun, but I sneezed and it was gone. Still, the light which now saturates the southwestern quarter of the sky is a splendid approximation of day, and true rays have caused the tops of pines to leap forth, glowing vivid green against the background of scudding gray clouds. No rain has fallen for two hours, but everything is still wet.
The clouds were two-layered for a while, their speeding lower layer like smoke which was thin enough in spots to reveal great white masses of cumulus above them, moving at a more stately speed. Here and there, patches of actual blue sky would emerge to confirm the continued existence of the world beyond the storm. Birds flocked and sang everywhere. The few remaining mulberry leaves-- mutants, I'm convinced, still green and clinging tenaciously to half a dozen small branches-- fluttered in an unexpectedly soft breeze. I watched acorn woodpeckers play fight among the stark, bare twigs at the tree's top.
Now I am watching the brilliance subside, and the streaks of cloud which edge the patches of bright blue are turning pink as the more northerly sky, still a stormy mass, shows streaks of lavender which quickly fade to steely blue-gray. The pine branches gesture as they become silhouettes. A few small birds, animate shadows now, flutter about in the mulberry tree, using the last dusky drop of day. I open the window for a moment. The air is cool and fresh. I don't remember it ever having been fresher.
The clouds were two-layered for a while, their speeding lower layer like smoke which was thin enough in spots to reveal great white masses of cumulus above them, moving at a more stately speed. Here and there, patches of actual blue sky would emerge to confirm the continued existence of the world beyond the storm. Birds flocked and sang everywhere. The few remaining mulberry leaves-- mutants, I'm convinced, still green and clinging tenaciously to half a dozen small branches-- fluttered in an unexpectedly soft breeze. I watched acorn woodpeckers play fight among the stark, bare twigs at the tree's top.
Now I am watching the brilliance subside, and the streaks of cloud which edge the patches of bright blue are turning pink as the more northerly sky, still a stormy mass, shows streaks of lavender which quickly fade to steely blue-gray. The pine branches gesture as they become silhouettes. A few small birds, animate shadows now, flutter about in the mulberry tree, using the last dusky drop of day. I open the window for a moment. The air is cool and fresh. I don't remember it ever having been fresher.