It’s pouring cats and dogs outside (or “raining ropes” if you literally translate the French expression) and I couldn’t be happier about it. Having grown up in Seattle, I’m no stranger to drizzle and having lived in Louisiana for six years, I’m also no stranger to torrential jungle rain, so I suppose you could say that rain – in all of its various forms – has been a constant presence in my life. But up until now, I’ve only ever thought of rain as either a pain in the derrière (when it comes to summer vacation, for example) or a cozy ambiance (whilst drinking a glass of wine and reading a book on the couch with jungle Louisiana rains outside). Now that we live in the French countryside, I have an entirely new appreciation for rain and water generally. You see, our “garden patch” aka “a field full of all kinds of veggies including over 80 tomato plants” is down a path in the middle of a bunch of other fields. And there is no nearby water source. That means that every two weeks or so, Nico and I spend the evening filling up 20-liter plastic jugs with water from the well, filling up my father-in-law’s truck with the plastic jugs, and jostling down the country path before dumping the water into a cistern next to our field. So right about now, as I listen to the rain pounding on the roof, what makes me really happy is the fact that we won’t have to water for a day or two. You know the Luke Bryan song “Rain is a Good Thing” with the refrain that goes, “Rain makes corn / corn makes whisky / whisky makes my baby / feel a little frisky”? On that note, I raise my glass (of Scotch whisky) to the Rain Gods. It may sometimes mess up our vacation plans, but man, rain really is a good thing.
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