Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Rain is grace...



Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.  John Updike







Photo Copyright, Margaret Buffie
          



During the winter months, I sometimes "dream" of rain - falling on the boreal forest around my lake cabin and on city streets where I live.
In my daydreams, it is usually spring at the lake. I see the first rain drops falling one by one, pockmarking the water until they are joined by millions of others - or I dream about those rare times, when I've watched a long sheet of rain come in from the far bay - a vast sweeping curtain - its huge determined cloud toward sliding toward me. I remember the number of times I stood on our old dock, watching and waiting. When I see the wall of rain startle the water near my island into a wild dance I hold my breath. I know I'm about to get good and wet! In this photo I am hiding under the old lowering Jack Pine. Here are some of my favourite artists.




Rain, Gustav Caillebotte





Seascape Study with Rain CloudJohn Constable   


As one song puts it, "I love a rainy day" Right now, on June 7, 2015 - the tree branches are bowed from a heavy downpour and cars are swishing past my house. If I went out my front door right now and took a short walk, I would see the elms along our city boulevard dripping with rain and smell the distant scent of white lilacs, car exhaust, mowed lawns and I could peer into the many puddles on the road reflecting the images that surround them. 



Puddle, 1952 Esher




Perfect Puddle, David Hockney, IPad Art



But if I walk out my back door into the garden there will be the smell of my small purple lilac hedge, a few open roses and the welcoming earthy spiced smells of my herbs, as the maple tree behind the fence rolls its last few drops of water onto my fat peony buds. 



Terrace in the Rain in Marquayrol,  Henri Martin


In the Rain, Franz Marc


The Window in the Garden, Henri Martin 




I will be at my lake cabin soon, and I will have my cameras ready for my walks. After a rain, I know the paths behind our cabin well, and I will discover mushrooms of every kind that have popped up overnight; bright yellow witch's butter oozing out of rotting logs, orange jelly poking out of old woodpecker holes, aromatic milky mushrooms in the deep mosses, white puff balls with tender spiked heads, red, white, gray and orange mushrooms - some flat topped, some curved, some bobbled and spotted  - all sleek with rain.




Mist  in the Forest, Nicholas Roerich



The rocks I climb across will have deep cushions of sphagnum moss after a rainfall, some so green they look almost neon in the shade. I have to walk carefully as those rocks will be slippery with wet soil hidden under the moss, while the earth on the paths I descend into will be dark and rich with odors, There I will find my mushrooms.





"The sudden appearance of mushrooms after a summer rain is one of the more impressive spectacles of the plant world." John Tyler Bonner


Photo, © Margaret Buffie


Photo, © Margaret Buffie





The rain begins with a single drop. Manal al-Sharif

First Drops of Rain By the Marsh © Photo Margaret Buffie



Rain Landscape, Max Gubler




Thy fate is the common fate of all;
Into each life some rain must fall.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Blue Rain Photo ©  Margaret Buffie




Paris Street Rainy Day, Gustave Caillebotte




Spring Rain  Erte



At night I dream that you and I are two plants 
that grew together, roots entwined, and that you know the earth and the rain like my mouth, since we are made of earth and rain.  Pablo Neruda

I am a being of Heaven and Earth, of thunder and lightning, 
of rain and wind, of the galaxies. Eden Ahbez

Rain Shower  Eyvind Earle




The rain began again. It fell heavily, easily, with no meaning
or intention but the fulfillment of its own nature, which was to fall and fall.
Helen Garner

Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.  Vladimir Nabokov

Downpour Nicholas Roerich



Rain, Erte



Let us keep the dance of rain our fathers kept 
and tread our dreams beneath the jungle sky.
Arna Bontemps

I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain; What a 
wonderful feeling, I'm happy again.
Arthur Freed



The Dance of the Rain, David Alfaro Siqueiros






One must know the so-called 'lesson of a downpour.' A man, caught in a sudden rain en route, dashes along the road not to get wet or drenched. Once one takes it for granted that in rain he naturally gets wet, he can be in a tranquil frame of mind even when soaked to the skin. This lesson applies to everything. Yamamoto Tsunetomo



Rainstorm on Ohashi Bridge, Ando Hiroshige




Rain,  Dmitry Kustanovich 



Listen to the falling rain,
Listen to it fall,
And with every drop of rain,
I can hear you call,
Call my name right out loud,
I can here above the clouds
And I'm here among the puddles,
You and I together huddle.
Listen to the falling rain
Jose Feliciano

Rain, Marc Chagall



Lovers Seated at the Foot of A willow Tree, 
Camille Pissaro




.... my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests.
Pablo Neruda


Thunderhead, Tom Thomson



Rainy Landscape II  Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas




There's always a period of curious fear between the first sweet-smelling breeze and the time when the rain comes cracking down.
Don DeLillo


Rain in Belle-Ile - Claude Monet, 1886



Ray Embankment in Basel in the rain Alexandre Benois 


After the Rain


This morning's scene is good and fine, 
Long rain has not harmed the land.
Du Fu



Fog and Storm and Rain, Eyvind Earle



After a Rain,  Arkhip Kuindzhi



Rain Mist and SunA. J. Casson



Clearing after the Rain JEH MacDonald 



When you are so full of sorrow,
that you can't walk, can't cry anymore, 
think about the green foliage that sparkles
after the rain. 
Omar Khayyam



Pond at Milton on the Hudson, George Innes












6 comments:

Amy Neighbour VanEchaute said...

Margaret,

This post is divine. Rain IS grace – have always loved this quote by John Updike. You have shared many of my favorite rain quotes here, and some of my favorite paintings as well! I adore "Rain" by Gustave Caillebotte, and I have always been a great fan of M. C. Escher and Camille Pissaro. I'm unfamiliar with Henri Martin, but LOVE his work! Is he the painter of the final image in this post?

I also love the photos you shared here, particularly your various mushrooms, your First Drops of Rain By the Marsh, and your Blue Rain Photo.

Thank you for all the time you put into your posts! This was was marvelous. Reminds me that I have a video clip to send you that I think you'll enjoy! xoxo

Margaret Buffie said...

Hi Amy!

Thanks for your great comments! I always try to put in some familiar art as well as some lesser known -- but all artists intrigue me (this includes the quotes as well). I love looking up quotes - and some I happened to have in my massive handwritten quotes files! I am always learning about new "old" artists --- and I also love some of the best in digital art right now.
The last painting's name and its painter's name somehow vanished!! And in fact so did the text I was writing just now about it? Huh??? Anyway, I will try again. Here goes ...the last paintings is "Pond at Milton on the Hudson" by George Innes. I've put it in the post now.

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Carol Anne said...

Gorgeous pics...and what a beautiful bit of writing. I am CRAVING a bit of moisture down here on the southern island. We are SO dry. But you've inspired me - I'm going out today to perform an intricate rain dance on the back 40.

Enjoy your cabin.

Margaret Buffie said...

Hope the rain dance works!! In a prairie city we often get summer rains in batches and then nothing! And in no time (like now!) land dryness and dust comes again quickly. It's supposed to thunderstorm tonight. I will keep my fingers crossed that you get rain,too, Carol Anne! Thanks for your really kind words. I appreciate it so much!