There was a thunderstorm last night, with torrential rain. The dogs, who hate thunder, hot-footed it into our bedroom at the first rumble, and were allowed on to the bed. Mary followed shortly afterwards and everyone went back to sleep apart from me. But I didn’t mind at all; in fact it felt good to be tucked up in the warm and dry, listening to their breathing and the rain drumming on the roof. Time was, before the building work, when I’d have to be creeping round the house on leak patrol, putting pans and buckets in strategic places. I lay here and thought of one of my favourite poems, WHO LOVES THE RAIN, introduced to me by Susan on her lovely High Desert Home blog.
WHO LOVES THE RAIN
By Frances Shaw
“Who loves the rain
And loves his home,
And looks on life with quiet eyes,
Him will I follow through the storm;
And at his hearth-fire keep me warm;
Nor hell nor heaven shall that soul surprise,
Who loves the rain,
And loves his home,
And looks on life with quiet eyes.”
I particularly loved this rainfall because we had been needing it for so long, and when it was time to get up, I wandered outside to find the garden lush and green and quenched.
There is something magical about gardens wet with rain. There’s that astonishing Van Morrison song In the Garden, where he remembers…
“When I saw you standin’
Standin’ in the garden
In the garden
Wet with rain
You wiped the teardrops from your eye in sorrow
And we watched the petals fall down to the ground
And as I sat beside you I felt the
Great sadness that day
In the garden”.
And then there is the lovely Morning has Broken, whether crooned by Cat Stevens or sung by a church choir:
“Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass.
Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day”.
Life goes on…. and thank goodness for that.
At Hampton Court Flower Show on Monday I saw another kind of rainy garden: an award-winning display garden called The Rain Chain, designed by Wendy Allen, which featured rainwater harvesting from a green roof via a gutter and “rain chain” leading into a sculptural metal water butt and overflowing into a sunken “rain garden” where excess water can soak away naturally.
This is an idea I’ve been interested in ever since reading Nigel Dunnett and Andy Clayden’s brillant Rain Gardens book a few years ago (published by Timber Press). The intention is to harvest and store water during times of heavy rain for use during drought, while also helping to prevent flash-flooding. All surfaces are permeable, and plants are chosen for their ability to tolerate short periods of both waterlogging and drought. I particularly like the rain chain itself – rather than channel the rainwater down an ugly plastic pipe unseen, it is sent dancing down a metal chain – and the splashy sound effects only add to the enjoyment.
I like the look of this, with its rusty metal water butt and grassy plantings. I recently saw another example, at a garden in Kent I was writing about, with the chic-est tidiest shed imaginable – see the chain flowing from the custom-made galvanized metal gutters into an old florist’s bucket (strictly speaking there should then be an overflow into something else – a “storm garden” planter or a ditch (some resemble a dry river bed in dry periods) leading to a pond or sump, or if necessary straight into the main drain).
I’m told there is also one at the Bernard Leach Pottery Studios in Cornwall. Originating in Japan and popularised in recent years in rain-ridden Oregon in the United States, I have a strong feeling that rain chains will become much more popular in years to come.
After all, it is possible to love the rain even more if one knows it is being collected up for use in drier times ahead.
Enjoy the rain everyone, should you be lucky enough to have some. And love your homes….
For background information about our project to turn a pair of derelict Victorian railway carriages into an eco-home, plus more garden writing, other journalism and information on my past, current and forthcoming books, please visit my website.
I share your feelings. The rain is so welcome after such a dry period. My Surrey garden is looking lush this morning. Still having to lug water down to the greenhouse though. But you have got me thinking and perhaps I can work something out to collect the rainwater off the greenhouse for use within. I know – must seem a bit slow to catch on. Probably everyone else has butts off their greenhouse – I guess I am just learning! Thank you for your inspiration.
Karen X.
What an energising post – just when I was feeling a bit grumpy about the torrential rain ( well I had just splashed through the Sainsbury’s car park with my shopping in it).
By the way – have you read This Organic Life by Joan Dye Gussow? She talks of planting on the diagonal as one of the John Jeavons guidelines they garden by. And yes Karen, I too lug cans down to the greenhouse and must think of something more sensible to do.
We had a thunder storm too, we were just returning from walking the dogs and they were v. loathe to leave the car. The heavens just opened it was wonderful after so much heat and humidity.
Loved the poem – you really captured the essence of rain in this entry – the first photo is beautiful too! I feel like I can almost smell it!
nice photos, its good to have rain sometimes after a while……but again the photos look so nice.
it is so lovely to read about rain, where I live there is a drought (Victoria, Australia), so rain is sorely missed.
I find your blog inspiring, thank you
I saw those rain chains too – and also fell instantly in love with them. I can’t abide the dreadful plastic piping we have and one day when money is more plentiful I too will have a pretty rain friendly garden with rain chains. Instead of the practical, patio’d space I have now!
Time is again with rain fall and thunder, to be enjoyed after the 31° we had for some days! The garden is happy and the cat has found my bed again after spending days and nights outside, love your vegetable plot, it has so much grown, amitié Martine
Hi Elspeth
I love the words to Morning Has Broken, bitter-sweet though because we sang this song at my dear father’s funeral a few years ago. By the way, I do hope you are feeling better with each day …
We have had torrential rain but for the past couple of days just lovely gentle light rain – and I love it – 30 degree heat is no good for Cottage Garden!
I love your diagonal planting – I’m inspired to try sowing that way – it looks so pretty.
Jeanne
beautiful post ….
thinking of you often
t x
I do love the rain, almost as much as I loved the really HOT temperatures. I even love it when it’s trickling fast down the inside of our bathroom wall from the leak in the roof that we can’t quite afford to have put right just now…
Unlike Tina Turner, I love the rain…on my windows and rooves and garden. It is rather consoling to know that I am not the only one.
I love the poems you included in your post ~ they add such a lyrical dimension to your beautiful photos and your wonderful rain chain. The poetry made me think of a little poem that has haunted me for years:
“Western Wind, when wilt thou blow,
The small rain down can rain?
Christ, were my love in my arms,
And I in my bed again.”
Do you know this poem and where it comes from? I feel it is Middle English, perhaps? But thank you for reminding me of it, and for giving me new poems to love. And I showed the rain chains to my husband and he wants to use them in our garden, too.
Thanks for all the nice messages. Kari – that poem is lovely, too, and reminds me of one of my favourite Bob Dylan songs ‘Tomorrow is a Long Time’, the chorus of which goes ‘If only my own true love was with me, And I could only hear her heart softly pounding, And if only she was lying by me, And I would lie in my bed once again…..’ – or something like that. Knowing how Dylan often wrote, it is probably his own adaptation of a poem or folk song he had found… so will do some research… it could be the very one he used.
x Elspeth
I decided to add my blog name to my own name and then realized it fits with the topic of rain!
FYI, here is a link to “The Western Wynde:”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Western_Wynde
This says the song was sung by troubadours, and Bob Dylan was certainly a troubadour! He must have enfolded these olden words into his own lyrics.
And thank you very much for following up on my words. I finally have my own blog up and running, and have listed you on my sidebar. I hope you don’t mind. I do love your blog! xo Kari