It’s Sunday and the first day in a while that truly feels like spring. The fruit trees have their blossoms. the kitties are playing outside, and I heard a bird singing. On the air is the promise of spring and the rains fading into memory.
Rain, California rain. It doesn’t come for years then it’s ferocious. Years of never-ending drought punctuated by flood.
Flood. Muddy waters chewing up river banks and crashing over dams. Awesome, unstoppable power. Trees topple in its path, rocks slam into rock, dirt turns to mud, and mud turns to a dreaded brown river. The road loses its firm foundation and collapses down into the valley. Solid hills become soft as the angle of repose sends soil, rock, tree and bush across the freeway, reminding humans that nature still holds power.
Such is my California. Rock, dirt, water and trees standing silent for years and then in a fury unleashed by time and tides rises to attack the feeble roads and bridges we build.
Our monuments to progress. Our temples of technology. Our audacity to assume we can control our world.
The simple fluffy cloud drifts overhead. Changing its shape, first a rabbit, then a doggie, and then darker. A wind rises as more clouds join the chorus and soon lets the tears fall. Mother nature, crying at the scars on the land and the poison in the air.
And the rain keeps coming. The tempo of the drops; a light minuet builds; until a symphony of water and wind the crescendo to the final movement of water crashing over our trivial human obstacles of weirs, dams, and spillways. As the rains recede, the rivers rise as if to applaud the sky and sends its waters to streets lined with cars and houses.
Such are my thoughts with spring in the air and the hope of summer fruit, with kittens playing in the yard.
Till next week,
Andrew
Andrew's View of the Week 
This is lovely. Particularly the parts mentioning the kitties. 🙂 I think we need to see pictures. How do we know there are really kitties in the yard?
LikeLike
Well, they’re really cats now, but I think of them as my kittens. Careful, I could turn into that guy who posts endless cat pictures – I’ve got five to choose from.
LikeLike
Cats, kitties, whatever. I’d never be the person to tell you you were posting too many cat pics. Your cats will be a fun topic when you’re on my talk show.
LikeLike
Ah, I get it, auditioning for your talk show. Cat pictures and stories are on the future post list.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You westerners complain about to much rain, and I feel for you as I sit in me New Jersey watching the snowflakes float down from the sky…
LikeLike
Well, out here we say, “if you can see snow, you’re just to darned close.” However it did snow here once in 1976. Got nearly an inch of the stuff and stayed on the ground all morning. Never understood why people like that stuff.
LikeLike
Beautiful post. No matter how old is our civilization, we will always depend on mother nature.
LikeLike
like it or not, we are apart of nature.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And we better don’t forget that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You wrote about your frustrations with such beautiful and poetic words. A nd lovely to end with the image of kittens playing. Xx
LikeLike
Thanks for your kind words. The style of the writing is almost a prose poem – at least I was aiming for that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, the words just flow. It ‘feels’ good reading it. The imagery is just brilliant. I can see it, feel it, hear it, you know what I mean. Hard to compete with your Friday posts, but this is one of my favourite reads from you, my favourite today. Happy Friday 😀
LikeLike
Thanks. I like this kind of writing. Glad you enjoyed it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautiful
LikeLike
thank you
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s been an incredible season and I am luxuriating in so much sudden green! Beautifully written, Andrew.
LikeLike
Things are very green around here too. So nice to have that again.
LikeLike
We seem to be getting more rain here in Arizona this past month, but I haven’t lived here long enough to know if it is typical or not!
LikeLike
Yup, you have been getting more rain that normal. Arizona tends to get about the same amount of rain that southern California gets. Arizona is more prone to flash flooding than we are here in Northern California.
LikeLike
You have captured California today perfectly. Yesterday was gorgeous down here. I walked my dog in the crisp chill, bright blue sky, fluffy clouds. Before I finished, rain clouds rolled in and I had to escape!
LikeLike
That’s California!
LikeLike
I know the drought was aggravating and a little daunting. Still, the rising waters of the floods must be horrifying, wondering if it will even stop. My thoughts are with you.
LikeLike
This last drought was the worst I’ve seen out here. The flooding was unexpected, but so far not as bad as it could have been. The long range forecast is showing clear skies for the next week. Hopefully we’ll get to dry out a little.
LikeLike
Beautifully written, Andrew. Last week I passed a sign outside a school that said: Building an Ark—Apply within. In October I hoped that we would get rain, but in waves and not all at once. These Arctic Rivers have been a bit of a surprise, that’s for sure. Perhaps it will taper off into intermittent showers from now until April and give the ground a rest.
Ω
LikeLike
Thanks. A FB friend posted that he was going to build an Ark – I offered to bring my tools over. I’m hopeful that we’ll be back to our spring rain from here out.
LikeLike
Do you remember the Bill Cosby comedy bit about Noah? He keeps asking, “How big is a cubit?”
Ω
LikeLike
Yes, I remember that one. I always quote the line that also reminds me of our flood control was: “Let it rain for 40 days and 40 nights and wait for the sewers back up.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
At that point plumbers will be more in demand than physicians.
Ω
LikeLiked by 1 person
it does make you wonder doesn’t it if Mother Nature is trying to tell us something. We have had lots of rain here in Eastern Canada, ( even thunderstorms, which is weird for February,) but not nearly to the extreme of your rain.
LikeLike
The rain event we just had happens about every ten years and they seem to be getting more extreme each time. I do wonder what nature is trying to say.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Up north Mother Nature spins the temperature wheel up and down and like magic we don’t have a fruit crop. 😦
LikeLike
There’s nothing like summer fruit and fresh plums off the tree.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s what I’ve been experiencing too Andrew. I just don’t have the gift of prose to express it so artfully. We just got back from a run around Clear Lake, Oroville, Barryessa and the Sacramento River valley. My attempt at putting it all into words: “Dang, that’s a lot of water!”
Beth
LikeLike
Well, I kind of started there too – lots of water.
LikeLike
We’ve given Mother Nature a lot to cry about.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We have.
LikeLike
Beautifully said
LikeLike
Thank you.
LikeLike