On Elizabeth's 9 month birthday, which was just this past Thursday ( July 5, 2012 ) we had at long last, a very rainy day! Now normally, that wouldn't be that BIG of a deal, but it was here because of the really out of control wildfires we've had. In fact, there was 10 raging that day, but I believe we may be down at least 1 or 2 since then. In anycase, many church congregations in the area had been praying that the rain would come and with it, that it may offer some relief to those extra hard working firefighters, and what do you know. God answered their prayers with a rainy summer day and evening. In fact, Kevin and I were even able to sneak out onto the porch and enjoy the showers and cool once we had put Elizabeth to sleep for the night. It was nice, so cool and breezy. The only thing that was missing was ( and it has been missing for years and years in our opinions) a porch swing. But even without it, Kevin and I spent some quality time together enjoying the rain, the rainbows, ( there was a double one at one point) and snail trails.
Here are a few pictures . . .
Nothing is quite so magical after a bit of rain as a rainbow!
No cartoon leprechaun with marshmallow charms necessary
Meet my friend the snail ( Fred was his name, in keeping with the tradition I gained at about 5 yrs. of age when every single caterpillar or bug I discovered was named Fred). I was absolutely fascinated by this little creature, we had discovered him inching across the porch , journeying to I don't know where after we had watched two other snails make their way across the sidewalk and into the lawn. I had to take a picture to capture his uniqueness. Can you tell I haven't really encountered a snail before? Such gentle, harmless, purposeful creatures. And so fascinating to me! I had some sidewalk chalk handy and just to see if he would cross the line, I drew one on the porch, which he crossed without a thought, then I drew another, and he crossed that too, then I drew a domed shape around him, and it didn't even slow him down. Next, I decided to draw an arrow to point him in the right direction and just as he had done before, he didn't even let it deter him from his goal at hand, in fact, he used it as a guidepost to make his way across the corner of the porch and down the steep edge and into the bushes below. When he was out of sight, both hubby and I peeked over the edge to see him clinging to the cement with his slime in some type of amazing spiderman move. Truly fascinating!
We also had two other close encounter of the snail kind that night ( 5 total), as there were 2 snails on the front step ( I determined they were getting married and that perhaps our friend, "the minister" was running late for the big event) < apparently even as a 33 yr. old I still have a slight imagination>. I felt inspired to protect these shelled pals and wrote sidewalk chalk messages all over the porch, like "Snail wedding in progress, do not squash" and I even made a "No Squashing Zone". Yes, I am weird. But it was fun and silly and time with just the hubs and I, on the porch (minus the porch swing of course). And someday all of these silly little moments will add up to a lifetime of happy memories, and that's what makes it all worth it!
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