Conversation over lunch

B. Here’s a question. What is your favourite sort of rain?

G. Oh, that’s easy. I love it when a huge storm comes roaring in, lashing the windows with horizontal rain. I watch the trees in the garden swoop back and forth. Dramatic. I feel so happy to be cozy inside.

B. Mmmm. But think of the mess we have to clean up next day.

G. True. OK. I’ll think of another. I know. I love waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of unexpected rain on the roof – especially after a long dry. I lie there and think of the plants just loving drinking it in.

B. Well, those are the nights I lie awake and worry whether we’ve cleaned the gutters.

G. So what’s your favourite rain then?

B. My best is that gentle rain that’s almost a mist. No wind. Just fine fine droplets. I watch the spider webs in the garden turn into sparkling nets. 

G. True. That’s pretty nice.

B. And how about those quick summer sunshowers we get sometimes? During them you see rainbows. 

G. Is there any sort of rain we don’t like, I wonder?

B. Well, sometimes in winter, when it’s cold and dank and rains for days on end, I think to myself that I have been longing for rain to start, but now I am longing for it to stop.

G. I vote for hail as the worst. Dramatic, I admit. But deadly for the garden. 

December 2020