BajaNomad

Rain from Ileana

Osprey - 8-30-2012 at 10:19 AM

Looks like the whole cape region is getting some small showers from what will soon be hurricane Ileana.

We had some nice wet stuff this early morn and it's still here.

A good time to reprise a piece I wrote and posted 5 years ago about a similar storm.

Tribunada
Squall




Rain sounds are different at your place than they are at mine. We have different gardens, roofs, shades, patios. The range of the sounds is amazing because there are so many kinds of rain, so many objects for the drops to hit.

My personal rains, the ones at my house, hit the palm thatch roof of my living room, my patio. They pelt the papayas, the arbol de fuego, the big pistachios, the royal platano de gardin. They beat upon the adokin, the pavers that are my front drive, the large dirt yard, the fountain in my small garden and they raise a hellious din on the tin roof of my bedroom. Each surface produces a slightly different sound, the slant, speed and volume of the rain differs from storm to storm, changes each second.

The rare summer showers that slowly creep down from the canyons begin with a hissing sound; barely audible at first because the droplets are so small, dewlike, just barely visible. Then, as the clouds darken, the drops grow larger, they begin to play their distinctive beat around the place. The big leaves of the garden banana plant resonate under the pressure of the large drops while the fronds of thatch of the patio roof disperse each drop, soften what could be a harsh pelting sound to almost a murmur.

As the huge anvil of water in the main part of the rainstorm becomes a dark dome above our village, the rain increases. The drops are huge and fall with great force to make a mixing of all the sounds that preceded them; the increase in volume becomes another more powerful and furious white noise.

The passing of the clouds is not the end of the opus; the last drops fall from the sky and things begin to make new rhythms as they drip. The dripping from the thatch hanging down around the patio becomes a rough pattern, each droplet having its own place in the scale, the distance to the dirt marking the tone, the cadence with more order and finally less sound. Then, when I’m sure I’ve heard the very last drop, a profound and lonely silence hangs like a pall over a sad and soggy place that, for a few minutes, I don’t quite recognize.

DanO - 8-30-2012 at 10:44 AM

Awesome. Thanks George.

shari - 8-30-2012 at 11:47 AM

magnificent...essence of rain....what a wonderful fragrance and visual delight you provided this muggy morning...oh for a drop

BajaBlanca - 8-30-2012 at 02:56 PM

nice writing, as always !

I just wish the rain meant relief but really, it just makes for more muggy weather.

We are so over this heat and humidity - I want an escape for August of next year - any suggestions on where in Baja it will be cool? And if not in Baja, anywhere else in the world.

DavidE - 8-30-2012 at 03:56 PM

PATZCUARO MICHOACAN, elevation 7,000 ft. Present temperature 76F

http://www.webcamsdemexico.com/webcam-patzcuaro-centro.html

Inexpensive, and a genuine Pueblo Majico site, not something contrived. Fly to Morelia. I pay 150 pesos a night for a room.

woody with a view - 8-30-2012 at 04:10 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Osprey Rain sounds are different at your place than they are at mine. We have different gardens, roofs, shades, patios. The range of the sounds is amazing because there are so many kinds of rain, so many objects for the drops to hit.


kinda says it all dontcha think? i never imagined how many things the droplets have to navigate before hitting the dirt and refilling the aquifers.

Iflyfish - 8-31-2012 at 02:41 PM

Good to the Very Last Drop!

Iflyfishinwater

volcano - 8-31-2012 at 03:03 PM

Osprey...you are a treasure!

MMc - 8-31-2012 at 03:11 PM

Well done. I could hear it as I read read it. Thank you!