By Jeanne Adams
Yesterday, our darling Anna C posted on her Facebook page that it was raining in her part of Australia after several parched weeks of no rain. It occasioned a lot of comment about the sound of the rain on the roof and what a lovely, sleep inducing effect rain has, lulling you to sleep with its patter.
Any number of people said they would stay in with a good book, a great glass of wine and a snack or two. I
found myself agreeing with them completely. We've not had a good rainy-lie-in-bed and listen day here in DC for any number of weeks. Storms, yes. Downpours, you bet. Soft misty rains at night? Yes. A good daytime, grey, please-stay-home-and-read day? Alas, no.And my towering TBR pile is showing the lack. On those rainy days, where its unpleasant to run errands and impractical to work in the yard, whose weeds are as towering as the TBR pile, I feel like I "have permission" to read.
What about you? Are you a rainy-day reader?Would you rather sleep on those stormy grey, deliciously stay-indoors days?
Or are you out and about, despite the drizzle, making stuff happen?
If you're a writer, do your find it easier or harder to write on those rainy afternoons?
NOTE: Due to technical difficulties...you know, as in no internet? Our regularly scheduled post with The Incomparable Claudia Dain WILL appear, just not today. Sorry, you're stuck with me. Grins.
59 comments:
WE did it Demetrius! We did it!
Hey girl! You and the D-man and the GR. Hmmmm. That should be interesting. What's Demetrius going to teach him THIS time? *shudder to think*
I'm not sure who's worse, P226 or Demetrius. You at least teach him useful skills like making chocolate chip cookies. Yummmm.
Heeeeeyyyyy, we should create a conspiracy. Maybe if whe finagle it PJ can get the chook and he can swindle her out of that Turtle recipe?
Wait....then I'd have to actually make them.
Nevermind.
*innocent smile* No, of COURSE we weren't really considering it, PJ...
{Joanie T and Demetrius slip their gladius' back in their sheaths, smirks of triumph on their face}
As Bran the ex-gladiator says...It's good to be the winner.
Snap too GR..you're ours...
It happens to be a grey drizzly day here in KY and I'm...doing laundry.
I'm torn between writing and reading Tall, Dark and Fangsome by Michelle Rowan.
I do a little bit of everything when it rains...read, nap...I LOVE naps...and errands but only if I'm desperate...for snacks!
Yay, Joan and Demetrius! Got anything interesting planned on this U.S. holiday?
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE rainy days where I can build a nice fire in the fireplace and read to my heart's content. Fortunately, winter in our rainy season in northern California so it's cold enough to build that fire.
Unfortunately, our rainy seasons often mean floods. Since our disastrous flood of the nineties, I'm always leary about too much rain. The houses across the street from us actually disappeared completely under the water.
A woman after my own heart JT. You'll be happy to know that rainy days also make me want to cook or bake. :> Comfort food usually. Pot pie. Tetrazzini. Ginger snaps.
Its sunny here, but just writing the list is motivating me...
Oh, Jo, that paints a lovely picture with the rain outside and the fire inside.
On the other hand, what a creepy thought that the houses disappeared! Whoa! Thatzalotta rain!
I always worry about all our CA Banditas with too much fire and too much rain in CA. The state seems to have a penchant for extremes. Grins.
After our own floods here in Louisville...which thankfully, did not directly affect me...I can only imagine.
Ummmm..comfort food...yeah, plays heck on WW plan.
But I'm CRAVING roast beef! What do you think, Dem? How does a nice rare hunk of meat sound?
{teeny, squawking voice in background} Better than chicken!
Sounds good to me, JT!!
Did I hear the party is at Joanie's house? We just have to ford rivers and drizzle to get there?
Bright and sunny here in Columbus. I think I managed to get some sun at yesterday's football game in the packed stadium. Rain is forecast for next week - we come use some.
I have very fond memories as a much younger girl, lying in the hammock on my parent's back porch, reading a book while it was raining on the other side of the screen. I got the glorious fresh smell, the mesmerizing sound, and ocassional light mist - but none of the actual steady rain. If it was chilly enough to pull a blanket over the hammock - so much the better. Ah...those were the days.
These days, I'm afraid, there's just too much too do to enjoy a book in the middle of the day. It's my guilty treat at the end of a productive day. But I still try to keep sheltered windows open on a rainy day to get that smell, sound and occasional cool breeze.
Congrat Joan, have fun with him today.
I love to set on my porch swing and watch the rain on rainy days. Most of the time I don't have the time to do it. It is also raining here a little today. We have had a lot of rain this year but not in the past few weeks. So its been pretty dry. We are suposed to get rain for the next few days I guess we will see.
Ok, it was totally embarassing to take the glads to Kroger's with me.
They saw the meat counter and started thumping their chests and flinging choice cuts into the cart....I had to put the kabosh on it. Told them my oven wouldn't hold a whole COW!
All the while, the GR wore sunglasses and occasionally called out "My cousin?!" as we went by the fryers....
Ooooh, Donna, what a lovely memory! I think hammocks were created by someone with a particularly magical bent of mind. First of all, what a joy to lie there. Second, you have to have some sort of spell with you to get in it correctly the first time. Ha!
OSU nearly lost that game yesterday. Wow!
I'm glad to know you haven't given up ALL rainy day joys, and kept the windows shut. Grins.
Virginia, I have the best memories of sitting on my Aunt's porch swing smelling the rain come over the mountains and waiting for it to just pour. Swinging out there was just divine. Hope you'll take a breather and go out today or tomorrow when it rains and just enjoy!
Oh, my goodness, JT! What a scene!
Then again, real mean like real meat, right? Snork. Might've guessed the chook would be wearing dark glasses trying to remain incognito. *eye roll*
And leaving him home was SO not an option! Eeeek! Disaster. Haha.
Jeanne, people are lucky to be 'stuck' with you, my friend! You're always great company whatever the weather!
Hey, JT, good going on the chook!
Sadly, I had some contest judging to do which took me longer than I expected so I didn't get my couple of blissful hours in bed with a book. Sigh. There's something so relaxing about it being wet outside while I let myself get swept away in a great story.
Oh, well, hopefully one day soon...
I love cooking on rainy days too, Jeanne. What's up with that? Yum, ginger snaps. I haven't made those in years!
Okay, Joanie, you picked my second favorite activity -- NAPS.
Yes, Jeanne, it was horrible. The creeks all flooded over into those low-lying areas. My oldest daughter was rafting around, trying to help people retrieve their treasures from inside their houses (without my knowledge, of course -- far too dangerous). FEMA helped somewhat and when people rebuilt I noticed their houses were build up on concrete blocks. We hadn't had that kind of flooding in 100 years. Scary.
I was thinking about rainy days while I was making tacoes and chocolate filled cake this morning. Thinking how I love when summer mornings are cool enough to justify using the oven.
We may have horribly hot summers, but we often get a breeze in the evenings that blows up from the Stockton Delta. We can turn on our all-house fan and cool the house down so sleeping isn't torture :-D.
LOL, Jeannne, especially our extremes with the budget. We may be the only state ever to declare bankruptcy!
Fires, floods, and earthquakes, that's our lot. Still, we haven't had a major earthquake in a while. Knock on wood.
Awwww, Anna, that's too bad you didn't get a book in, but hey, judging's reading too. Most of the time. Grins.
I know the lucky authors who got you for a judge will be happy. Grins.
A rare hunk of meat, huh? That sounds erot-- uh, delicious, Joan!
Wow, how like one of your kids to think of helping others. That's cool - even if it is frighteningly dangerous!
Love that breeeeze at night. We had that in the mountains, growing up. Even if it had been beastly hot during the day, at night...ahhhhhh! The breeze. :>
As to CA's budget and a quake...I'm knocking wood on that one FOR you!... I hadn't thought about it, but it does play havoc with the state's funds, doesn't it?
Hey Jo...what's chocolate filled cake?
I really feel your pain, Donna. I keep thinking I should enjoy this pre-pubbed status because (like having children) I know my life will never be quite the same after I publish.
Well done Joanie enjoy your day with him
I love rainy days Jeanne and yes I love staying indoors and reading if I can, it doesn't always work out that way though I do wish I could just skip work on rainy days or not go and do the groceries.
Another thing I like to do on rainy days if I get the chance is get the grandkids in their rain coats and gumboots and take them for a walk they do enjoy that and then back home for some warm chocolate milk and some biscuits.
Have Fun
Helen
Ah, it's just a little something I made up that I'm sure tons of people have done before.
I make a yellow cake (I use a boxed mix; hey, I'm not a Joanie :-D). I only use half the mix because there're only the two of us and well, this body can take only so many calories. I throw in a 1/2 pkg of Dream Whip to make it fluffier.
After it cools and I've removed it from the pan, I slice it horizontally. Then I use a Jello chocolate instant pudding mix for the filling. I just tweak it by adding the other half of the Dream Whip and some Cool Whip less 1/2 cup of the milk so that it stands up nicely.
Actually, this also works well with a lemon instant pudding mix, same other ingredients.
I'm so jealous, Virginia. My grandma had a porch swing and a large wraparound porch. I sat there for hours when I was little.
Helen said: Another thing I like to do on rainy days if I get the chance is get the grandkids in their rain coats and gumboots and take them for a walk they do enjoy that and then back home for some warm chocolate milk and some biscuits.
Oh, what a wonderful grandmother you must be, Helen! I loved this as a kid, and my kidlets adore it too. Something about all that rushing water in the street and the wet clothes and laughing...It's great.
Wow, Jo, that's sounds yummy and simple too! Just my kind of recipe! :>
I simply ADORE rainy days, Jeanne!
We had a great storm two nights or so ago, heard rain for a little over an hour with all the thunder and lightning, but that was it.
Rainy mornings or days are perfect for me to sleep in. If I'm lucky enough for the rain to still be falling when I wake up in the afternoon...I grab a book! If it's raining late at night and the weather isn't too hot, I open the windows to my office and listen to the rain while I write.
Luckily, fall is almost here, and we usually do get some nice rainy days down in Texas then!
The budget cutbacks have made fighting the fires seriously dangerous. I feel so bad for people that are in the tinder-box areas.
Helen you are a good Grandma!
I love calling galoshes gumboots.
Reminds me of one of my visits to Ireland where they call them Wellies...
I was in a department store called Dunnes, trying to convert sizes and overheard a young girl PLEADING with her Grandma for some new pink Wellies. The Grandmas said, "Ye have some at home.
The little girl was undeterred. She said "But I need them to wear in the snow!"
The grandma tsked "And where would you be finding snow, I'd like to know"
It was cute.
Ah Joanie what a lovely story
Jayden has 3 pairs of gumboots they are his favourite type of shoes to wear one pair are green with pirate skull & cross bones on them one pair are red with dinosours on them and he has one plain black pair and Hayley has 2 pairs both pink one with Barbies on them and the other my little pony and yes I bought them for them I can't help myself.
My kids used to love doing this so I now do it with the grandkids and I do have so much more patience with them.
Actually it is cloudy here this morning and they are predicting rain and storms this afternoon but alas today I have to go to work instead of staying home and reading.
Have Fun
Helen
Hi Suz! I love to hear it when I'm writing too, whether at night or in the day. SOmetimes it'll lull me tooooo much tho' and I'll have to have that fav thing of Jo and JT - a NAP! Grins.
Thankfully, Fall is almost here. Isn't is a great time of year? Football. School's back in session. (Yay!) Halloween's only 56 days away...not that I'm counting or anything....
Jo, that budget cut vs wildfire thing IS scary. Eeek!
Oh drat, I should've stayed in the cave. Now I want some of that cake!!!
Lovely rainy day images, Jeanne! I'm perfectly happy to be "stuck" with you today. :-)
Yes, all the so-called natural disasters in CA do mess up the state budget even more than usual. And I say "so-called," because it seems that the big fire out here might've been deliberately set. Grrrrr. As one acquaintance put it, "I've got two words for that arsonist. Public. Hanging."
On a much more pleasant note, I'm soooo happy to report that there's a wonderful sea breeze drifting through the house today. No fans necessary. It's heavenly!
Yay, Joanie!!! Congrats! Hope you're relaxing, reading a good book, with the GR turning pages for you! :-)
Joanie, I love that gumboots/wellies thing too.
What a delightful vignette that must have been with the grandma and her grandchild. I'd love a pair of pink wellies myself, come to think of it.
I was buying shoes for my youngest - light up, Batman shoes, wide, thank you - and they had this marvleous display of rain boots. I have to confess I'd have loved to have the Dalmatian ones or the skull and crossbones ones in MY size. Sigh.
Kate said: the big fire out here might've been deliberately set. Grrrrr. As one acquaintance put it, "I've got two words for that arsonist. Public. Hanging."
Now there's a solution I could get behind! :> Not that I'm bloodthirsty or anything...but...
Seriously, when I think of all the homes, lives and memories lost and acreage crisped its just criminal.
Lovely about the clear, cool breeze though, Kate!
Hey, when does your next book come out?
Joanie, what a wonderful story! I do love the Irish accent.
Even if the fires aren't "deliberately" set, most can be attributed to humans, either through carelessness or simple encroaching.
It's sad that we haven't been really good stewards of the land, isn't it?
Sometimes I feel generations of my descendants shaking their fingers at me!
Whelp, as my sis-in-law says, all this talk of naps is beckoning me to the bedroom where I'm engrossed in a second reading of Aunty Cindy's TREASURES OF VENICE.
Jo said: Sometimes I feel generations of my descendants shaking their fingers at me!
Me too, Jo, especially when I see all the clear-cut mountains and strip malls. Urg. But we're learning, I think. Not so much of that going on as used to be.
Here's to less and less each year, with fewer ancestral finger shakes!
Isn't it great, Jo? I'm loving it in its final incarnation.
Jeanne, I love rainy days! Or, I guess I should say I did love rainy days until this past summer when it seemed to rain constantly. If I'd spent every rainy day reading, I'm sure my deadline last month would've whooshed by un-met
:-)
What I really love are snowy days. I mean days when there's so much snow you shouldn't even go out using your 4-wheel drive *g* I get a blanket, some coffee and curl up on the couch with a book and life is good ;-)
Hi Beth! I know what you mean about the rain. We didn't get neraly as much as ya'll but our May was an alltime record for rainfall.
I love the snow too. I just love snow, as all of you have heard me say ad nauseum, I'm sure. haha! WINTER!! Yay!!! Grins.
Had to laugh about the deadline whooshing by un met. Yes, you would have had that if you'd taken all the rainy days.
Here in Seattle, without rain, people get nervous. Rain means that we have snow up in the mountains, which means that there's going to be water in the reservoirs later on, which means there won't be a water shortage. Gentle rain means we can sleep well.
Less than gentle rain ... floods in the valleys, floods in basements, infrastructure in the cities in danger ... even in Seattle.
But gentle rain? Best of all weather.
Hi Ellis! I have a friend in Seattle who says the same thing. No rain? Not good. Too much rain? Not good. :>
Great question. :-)
I love rainy days for relaxing and writing quieter scenes on my computer (unless it's a thunderstorm and then I handwrite). I enjoy the difference in the quality of the general noise that rain brings.
~Saoirse Redgrave
Author of the 13 to Life series (hitting shelves in 2010 thanks to St. Martin's Press and Textnovel.com)
Hi Saoirse! Great to have you drop by! :>
I love writing to the rain drops too, if it doesn't make me too sleepy to manage. :> Then again, nap or book, or writing, I still get a good story. Heehee.
Congrats on your sale to St. Martins
Hi Jeanne! I'm a bit torn about the rainy day. As a proud Oregonian, I do get nervous about the absence of rain. On the other hand, I'm not ready to settle in for eight months of it just yet. :-)
I actually love thunderstorms, and we don't get many (any!) of them out here. There were some crackers when we were in NY, and they were so fun. But my kids were terrified, poor things. They just didn't know what it was all about.
Hi Jeanne! I'm a bit torn about the rainy day. As a proud Oregonian, I do get nervous about the absence of rain. On the other hand, I'm not ready to settle in for eight months of it just yet. :-)
I actually love thunderstorms, and we don't get many (any!) of them out here. There were some crackers when we were in NY, and they were so fun. But my kids were terrified, poor things. They just didn't know what it was all about.
You don't get thunderstorms in Oregon, Kirsten? Really? Wow. I wouldn't know what to do without a summer full of whip-crack lightning. Grins. So powerfully beautiful.
Great post yesterday, by the way. :> My kids started back to school on Monday. (Hear me sing Hallelujah!) Grins.
Saoirse, congratulations on your sale to St Martins! Whoo-hoo! Just out of interest, do you pronounce your name like Sorcha?
Hi Anna! I wondered that too, perhaps Saoirse will enlighten us. It's such a cool name!
Thanks for popping over to play with me today everyone!
I love rainy-gray days for staying in bed, lounging about reading and napping and eating brownies by the yard.
Writing? I tend to not write on rainy days if it's a thunderstorm type--don't want to fry the computer--but it's not a case of either-or. There's always time for both writing and reading...I usually only have a daily word count expectation of 1000 words and it's usually pretty easy to get those within an hour and a half. (Actually I'm more productive about my words if I'm not lounging about in bed and eating brownies, so that would be the downfall of a rainy-hooky day. *LOL*)
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