As I’m writing this, it is Sunday afternoon. It feels like an early fall day already. It’s brown meadow season with bright blue skies, hardly a cloud, eye-popping flower colors, and a mellowness of air that betrays that the hottest days this year are over. My head feels dizzy, and I’m looking at Mt. Rainier for the umptieth time these past days. No lenticular cloud – no weather change. But my body tells me we are in for rain. Or was it just the past sleepless nights that take their toll on me?
Rain. As a child I simply hated it because usually it meant disrupting outdoor playtime. As a teenager, though, I started embracing it. I guess, it’s because my mother taught me how to use all my senses to experience Nature. And there is so much more to rain than just getting wet. Even the stages of getting wet can be so different. Have you ever experienced horizontal rain on a beach? Or bicycling through it, while somebody up in the sky has decided that it’s time for another shower today – down to your skin? The soft caressing of drizzle in a face that doesn’t have to fear running mascara (anymore)?
Or just observe how it starts raining. There might be even a moment of almost breathless silence before the first drop splashes down – on a leaf that ducks under the sudden pressure; on your hand from which it immediately evaporates as if it never happened; on your driveway where it widens as if to reach out to another drop to unite and color the entire asphalt area a darker hue. Maybe, the drops are invisible at first, then they become bigger, until they are pelting down, and it seems like a white curtain has been drawn across your backyard. They might even splash back upward on the road as if they were jumping on a trampoline. And they build up pools in the ditches where later the sky will see its own reflection.
Also, I find there is no more soothing sound then the rush of rain. Not even the sea or a bubbling brook is as calming. Have you ever fallen asleep to rain with your window open?
And then, the fragrance that comes with rain. It’s as if it were unlocking an entire cabinet of aromas while it’s falling and afterwards. There’s the smell of freshly mown grass that gains a totally new quality of herbal and sweet. The bitter-sweet, almost taste-like scent of wet brick and asphalt, the earthy smell of a wet beach, the cold-smoke fragrance of wet wood, the infinitely sweet and pungent smell of a forest after the rain.
I remember sitting with my sweetheart and his best man under the canopy of my balcony two days before my wedding, when a sudden cloudburst made us flee inside. Or how many hiking tours in my childhood and youth seemed to be ended by a race against darkly looming clouds. These moments of surprise or of an almost sporty competition who’ll make it to the car first – the rain or me?
It’s strange how these days I crave a good rainfall, no matter which time of day. After all, we didn’t have much of a spring other than this cool, dark-gray wetness here in Washington State, and our summer this year hasn’t had more than a week’s worth of real summer days. Even our garden’s harvest will fail us this year because we could plant only comparatively late, and then there was a lack of nourishing sunlight. (If any of you guys has a good recipe for green tomatoes … )
Even music has made much of rain. Have you ever heard the French chanson “Sous le ciel de Paris”? It describes Parisian life and how it gets interrupted by a shower. There’s “Rain drops are falling on my head” and “November Rain”, there are Toto’s “Africa” and Led Zeppelin’s “Rain Song”, even Beethoven’s symphony “Pastorale” describes a rain storm. But the song that comes to my mind first, is one of the first rain songs I ever learned, a call to harvesters to get the grain in as rain is looming; here’s a link: https://youtu.be/ne__mIBETt8
You see, rain is certainly something you can learn to embrace. Especially when it comes in a balanced way – not too much, not too often, not for too long. Right now, I could do with some birdsong after a good, hard shower – and maybe a rainbow in the sky.
Great article! I agree with the insights on rain. I remember listening to the rain falling on the metal roof on the porch at my grandparent’s farm in Alabama. It was so soothing and put you to sleep feeling relaxed and at peace.
Thank you, David. I can almost hear it myself!!! On a gray morning like today, I wish it would rain – our meadows are all dried to a crisp out there …
Wow! What a great description of the rain and what a fine job of putting the reader into the story with sensory details and more. This certainly upholds the writer’s axiom of “show don’t tell.”
Gut gemacht!
Thank you big times, Jim. You have no idea what that means to me! (But then, you probably have … 😉 )
Susanne you captured all the various senses of that gentle and not so gentle rain poetically.
You missed one favorite rendition, the movie with Gene Kelly as he danced joyously in the rain which was actually a studio with water pouring down on him. I have always loved the rain, be it the gentle shower or the sudden downpour.
You are so right, Joan. There are quite a few movies that have great rain scenes. I think of “The Great Rain” as well as of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, and there are probably lots more. Thank you for opening this treasure trove of memories …
First, I have a recipe for you and I will paste it in at the end of this otherwise lengthy comment, so please look for it there. I hope you will enjoy it. The key to success with fried green tomatoes is to use panko crumbs. (see below)
I enjoy each of your columns and look forward to reading every single one of them. This one in particular resonates with me, because I love the rain. Perhaps because I am a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, it is my home environment and I am ever-so-comfortable in Nature when it rains. I actually miss it when it doesn’t rain. I am perfectly happy — perhaps I should admit that I am happiest when it is raining.
I remember vividly a visit to Los Angeles in the 1980s when there was a sudden shower. People coming out of a shopping center were cowering in the doorway seemingly terrified, immobilized in fear to proceed to walk to their cars in the parking lot lest they get rained on. They were panic-stricken in horror! I’d never seen anything like it. Conversely, living here in the Northwest where we are renowned for rain, I don’t even own an umbrella.
Regarding that unique fragrance that abounds after the rain, I read an article about what causes that a few years ago. Here is a scientific explanation of the phenomenon from the HowStuffWorks website:
“Most people notice a distinctive smell in the air after it rains. It’s frequently linked with spring, as the smell of fresh cut grass is associated with summer. You’ll find it in a lot of poetry and also on many inspirational lists of things to be happy about. But what causes it?
As it turns out, the smells people associate with rainstorms can be caused by a number of things. One of the more pleasant rain smells, the one we often notice in the woods, is actually caused by bacteria! Actinomycetes, a type of filamentous bacteria, grow in soil when conditions are damp and warm. When the soil dries out, the bacteria produces spores in the soil. The wetness and force of rainfall kick these tiny spores up into the air where the moisture after a rain acts as an aerosol (just like an aerosol air freshener). The moist air easily carries the spores to us so we breathe them in. These spores have a distinctive, earthy smell we often associate with rainfall. The bacteria is extremely common and can be found in areas all over the world, which accounts for the universality of this sweet “after-the-rain” smell. Since the bacteria thrives in moist soil but releases the spores once the soil dries out, the smell is most acute after a rain that follows a dry spell, although you’ll notice it to some degree after most rainstorms.
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Another sort of smell is caused by the acidity of rain. Because of chemicals in the atmosphere, rainwater tends to be somewhat acidic, especially in urban environments. When it comes in contact with organic debris or chemicals on the ground, it can cause some particularly aromatic reactions. It breaks apart soil and releases minerals trapped inside, and it reacts with chemicals, such as gasoline, giving them a stronger smell. These reactions generally produce more unpleasant smells than bacteria spores, which is why the after-the-rain smell isn’t always a good one. Like the smell caused by the bacteria spores, the smell of chemical reactions is most noticeable when it rains following a dry spell. This is because once the chemicals on the ground have been diluted by one downpour, they don’t have the same reaction with the rainwater.”
Now here’s my recipe for quintessential Fried Green Tomatoes… Enjoy!
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES
Recipe from Jaynie Jones
4 – 8 SLICES
INGREDIENTS:
1 OR 2 LARGE GREEN TOMATOES CUT INTO 1/4-INCH THICK SLICES
KOSHER SALT AND GROUND BLACK PEPPER
1/2 CUP FLOUR
1 TEASPOON GARLIC POWDER
2 LARGE EGGS
1 TABLESPOON MILK
1 CUP PANKO BREADCRUMBS
1/8 TEASPOON GROUND CAYENNE PEPPER
1 CUP CANOLA OIL OR OTHER COOKING OIL SUCH AS PEANUT OIL
DIRECTIONS:
CUT EACH TOMATO INTO 4, ¼” SLICES.
SEASON THE TOMATOES ON BOTH SIDES WITH KOSHER SALT AND PEPPER.
WHISK TOGETHER THE FLOUR, GARLIC POWDER AND CAYENNE PEPPER IN A SHALLOW BOWL.
WHISK THE BEATEN EGGS AND MILK TOGETHER IN ANOTHER SHALLOW BOWL.
PLACE THE PANKO CRUMBS IN A THIRD SHALLOW BOWL.
ADD OIL TO A LARGE FRYING PAN OVER MEDIUM-HIGH HEAT.
DREDGE THE TOMATOES SLICES FIRST IN THE FLOUR MIXTURE, THEN THE EGG MIXTURE, AND THEN THE PANKO CRUMBS. COAT BOTH SIDES EVENLY. SHAKE OFF ANY EXCESS PANKO CRUMBS.
TEST THE OIL TO SEE IF IT HAS REACHED THE PROPER TEMPERATURE BY DROPPING IN A FEW PANKO CRUMBS. IF THEY SIZZLE, YOU KNOW IT IS READY TO FRY.
WHEN THE OIL IS READY, CAREFULLY ADD THE COATED TOMATO SLICES.
FRY 1 TO 2 MINUTES ON EACH SIDE OR UNTIL THEY’RE GOLDEN BROWN.
REMOVE FROM THE OIL WITH A SLOTTED RUNCIBLE SPOON AND BRIEFLY DRAIN ON A WIRE RACK OVER PAPER TOWELS.
ENJOY!
You rock, Jaynie! Thank you for your wonderfully weird L.A. story and the highly interesting scientific explanation why the air smells differently after rain.
And thank you so much for the recipe – you bet I will try this!!!
Thank YOU so much! And the Fried Green Tomatoes are always great with a dollop of mayo or as a topper on a burger. 🙂
Oh neat – never occurred to me as a burger topping – now you set my foodie mind in motion 🙂 <3