I love winter rain. It reminds me of listening to old country music in the big old farmhouse that I grew up in. Rain was far less frequent there, a much drier climate. But when it rained, it truly rained. 

We would come in cold and wet from riding at a gymkhana, the horses away for the night, the truck unpacked and four shivering kids drying off by the open fire. Never did I love baths so much as during the winters of my childhood, especially on cold, rainy nights. 

Yesterday as the rain poured down I was in bliss, in a bath again. It has been a long time coming and was finished yesterday. So with no time to waste, a beautiful soak under the sound of the winter rain left me feeling like a new woman. 

With water so scarce in our childhood, the bath water naturally had to be shared. As we grew into teenagers and started shaving our legs, our brother always wanted to have the bath before us girls so he didn't get a prickly bum if we'd shaved. Sometimes we would promise not to shave, but if he had been awful to me during that week, I would do it anyway. Teenage siblings, what can you do?! 

My dog used to sleep on the end of my bed and during winter, tucked in with me. The house would be silent. We were so far from civilisation that it was totally peaceful and quiet once the household wound down for the night. Everyone snug. 

It would start with one drop, then two, then a gap, then another few, a tease of another gap, then from the silence we would hear our father's huge voice call out 'Send it down Hughie' and smiling in our beds, the rain would start pouring. Wild winds, thunder that shook the old homestead, and lightning as bright as daylight lit up my room as my little dog nestled into me more and more, safe in my arms. The smell of the rain would ooze through the house, raindrops settling on dust. What a welcomed smell, I'll always love it. 

As I have written in my other article Rain, rain, rain, I will never tire of rain either. It is a life force from which we survive. Anyone who has ever seen What the bleep do we know or read The Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto, or any of his other beautiful books, will know how ignorantly we, as a society, have treated this loving life force. 

The mountain is out of view now due to the low clouds. Yesterday soaking in the bath, it was obvious that this rain would set in for a while. The creek is up and it is possible that we will be flooded in. Thankfully with a decent supply of fresh food, this is seen as a blessing rather than an inconvenience. 

So while the busyness of the world carries on elsewhere, city streets jammed with rushing people, I shall drink pots of chai, work on my new songs, and listen to the birds as they grab any slight ease in the rain to share their own songs with me. Right at this very moment, there is nowhere in the world I would rather be. 

Thank you rainy day, what a blessing you are.