“And in this moment, like a swift intake of breath, the rain came.”
The rain started when I was sleeping but wasn’t unexpected. It is still raining but hardly, only drop by drop slowly, and I can hear the drops falling on the umbrella. The day has a calmness about it despite the rain. The house is dark and quiet. Today is a favorite sort of day.
Yesterday Gracie had a run-in with a baby spawn which sounds a bit redundant so maybe spawnette would be a better word. Anyway, I heard a bit of a commotion and went into the yard. Gracie had the spawnette running through and around her legs. It was the safest place, a spot where Gracie couldn’t get at it. Gracie kept trying but wasn’t too successful. Finally the creature started to run and the paw got it, sort of flattened the spawn which then ran between Gracie’s legs again. It tried running away a few times but each time Gracie got it. I yelled for Gracie to come, and, as usual, Gracie ignored me. Here’s the irony: I used the hose on Gracie who ran. The spawn went underneath the outdoor shower for safety. I went into the house: mission accomplished. A bit later Gracie came in: her nose and mouth were covered in dirt. I knew she’d been digging. Sure as heck she’d dug a hole under the shower. I didn’t find a dead spawn so it must have gotten away. Much to her consternation, I washed Gracie’s face and cleaned her mouth.
The dry season in northern Ghana lasted half the year. We used to check out the morning sky and say it looked like rain, knowing we had months before it would rain again. The water was often turned off for two or three days most weeks, but we usually knew in advance so we filled our metal buckets with water and lined them up against the wall in the shower room. We also filled every water bottle. At night I’d take a bucket bath and then use the remaining water to flush the toilet. Without water, the grasses turned brown and the soil became dust. Any traveling meant dust in you mouth and all over your body and your clothes. Mammy lorries traveling on laterite roads were followed by dust clouds. I always thought of the old west and stagecoaches when I saw dust billowing behind the lorries.
I loved the start of the rainy season when the storms were most dramatic with thunder shaking the house and lightning bolts hitting the ground where you could see them. I loved the rain when it fell in Bolga.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: Gracie and the squirrel, hosed down, rain, rainy season
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September 13, 2013 at 12:26 pm
I can’t say I don’t like rain because I do as long as it doesn’t rain too often. This summer it has come to seldome and that I love. We do get those dust clouds after our cars now but the grass is still green. A neighbors well has dried out so now they fill it with water from a huge tank, a work friend do just the same with his well. Mine is a deep drilled one so I doubt it will run dry as long as it rains at least a few times every year.
I do feel sorry for the little spawnette. But dogs are completely deaf when things like that happens. My dogs dp thye same with voles here and I doubt they would hear an explosion a few yards away while the hunt continues 🙂
The beavers in the creek have still not been hit by the high speed lead poisoning even though they now also cut down big trees along the creek. Strange but a positive surprise. We also now have a moose cow and two calves close to the village. I heard her calling for them this morning in the fog. I’m glad I didn’t come close to her then, they can kill if they feel like it.
Have a great day!
Christer.
September 13, 2013 at 12:36 pm
Christer,
In Ghana it rained almost every day and it was welcomed for the framers. Here I do get grumpy if we have day after day of rain as we did in June.
I have town water so I don’t have to worry about rain.
Stay away from the moose! They are just so enormous. I would think one with calves would be even scarier!!
Have a wonderful evening!
September 13, 2013 at 12:47 pm
Last year a moose cow killed a woman coming between her and her calf. The woman couldn’t help itthe cow and her calf were separarted by a walking road. Another person was badly injured by anothet moose cow. They are truly dangerous and I would rather meet a wolf than a moose.
September 13, 2013 at 1:19 pm
Christer,
It doesn’t matter the wild animals. I suspect any mother would charge if someone was between her and her baby, but a moose would scare the heck out of me.
September 13, 2013 at 12:34 pm
Foyles War PBS Masterpiece Theatre, 9.00 pm Sunday
In 2002 Anthony Horowitz introduced us to Christopher Foyle, Sam Stewart and Paul Milner and for some ten years and more we have travelled with them through their war time mysteries in Hastings and onwards to post war adventures.
Series 7 might be the best ever, said the enthusiastic Wall Street Journal today. Milner did not make the trip into the latest series but Christopher and Sam will deal with matters of espionage in three new episodes.
For those not familiar with Foyles War, it is a good old fashioned detective mystery. Love the series, the writing, the characters. Well worth your time if you like that sort of thing, and oh boy I do !
September 13, 2013 at 12:39 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I love Foyle’s War and will mark my calendar accordingly. I too love good old fashioned mystery and intrigued!
I just set a reminder on my Tv. I’ll be ready!!
September 13, 2013 at 1:13 pm
I am trundling along with The White Queen – nothing like a good historical fiction based on the War of the Roses. I am really waiting for Black Sails on Starz, pirates and tons of swashbuckling ! (if you know what I mean)
September 13, 2013 at 1:18 pm
MDH,
I never gave The White Queen a look. It just didn’t appeal to me by what I had read. When does Black Sails start?
September 13, 2013 at 1:27 pm
Early next year for Black Sails – The previews show tons of sword fights, wenches, great big pirate boats and excessive swashbuckling – no need to pressgang me for this one
September 13, 2013 at 3:53 pm
MDH,
I figure the wenches would be enough.
September 13, 2013 at 3:56 pm
Wenches are very cool especially when they are being swashbuckled. Puffy sleeves, lots and lots of puffy sleeves.
September 13, 2013 at 4:01 pm
MDH,
Off the shoulder puffy sleeves!
September 13, 2013 at 1:10 pm
Hi Kat,
The rain started last night around 9PM. I was just leaving knitting group. When I got home, I let Rocky out and sat on the top step to read the paper while he did his business.
The rain started coming down harder and Rocky came in because he believes he will melt if rain hits him. I scooted myself back a little farther into the doorway and stuck my feet out into the rain. It was cold and it made me shiver. But it had been so hot that I just stayed there and enjoyed the sensation until the thunder and lightening started.
Much as I hate spawns, I would have used the hose on the dog too. Rocky doesn’t kill animals, just stuffed toys and tissues. My last dog was the killer. I didn’t want her toying with prey, though. If she was going to kill something, ’twas best ’twere done quickly so to speak.
I love Foyles War, too, and will check it out on PBS.
Enjoy the day.
September 13, 2013 at 1:15 pm
Caryn
Foyles War has been such a consistently good series. I am glad that Horowitz allowed the characters to develop after the War ended but I will miss Milner.
Definitely smitten by this one 🙂
September 13, 2013 at 1:17 pm
Hi Caryn,
I went to bed at 11, and it hadn’t started yet, but I saw it pouring during the Pats game and knew it was coming.
Gracie doesn’t mind the rain too much unless it is a deluge. No thunder and lightning here-you had a good storm.
Gracie doesn’t even kill stuffed animals. She still has the ones she got as a puppy. She was playing with the squirrel the same way she tried to play with a skunk. I don’t believe she would intentionally hurt it.
You also enjoy the day!!
September 13, 2013 at 2:32 pm
Oh, I definitely wouldn’t want my dog playing with skunks. Stinky to critical mass. 🙂
September 13, 2013 at 3:57 pm
Caryn,
Only her head got it, but I had some of that skunk smell remover which worked perfectly. It is called Nature’s Miracle Skunk Odor Remover.
September 13, 2013 at 2:04 pm
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September 13, 2013 at 4:14 pm
OK, I give up, what’s a spawn or a spawnette? I assume it’s some kind of small animal, but I have never heard this term used before. Google doesn’t know either.
Our first greyhound was very excited one evening at the back door leading into the yard. When I looked out I saw that a white cat had wandered inside or eight foot fenced back yard. I thought I had chased the cat out of the yard, but when I let the greyhound out she found the cat behind a couple of rose bushes and they had an altercation. Literally a cat and dog fight. When the dog came out from behind the bush she had the cat held high in her mouth by its spine shaking the crap out of the cat. I grabbled the first thing I could find which was a broom and raised it above my head as if to strike the dog with the bristles. The dog immediately dropped the cat, who scrambled out of the yard at 100 MPH and jumped over the fence in one leap. The dog went down on all fours and began to cry. I then realized that this retired racer had been trained on live bait and probably had been abused. The cat never came back into our backyard again.
No rainfall again in North Texas. Although we don’t officially have a rainy or a dry season, summertime is always hot and dry. The last couple of years have been both hotter than usual and much dryer.
September 13, 2013 at 4:29 pm
Bob,
Spawnette is a word I made up but one definition of a spawn is product of a parent. Spawn of Satan is used sometimes to describe a horribly evil person. I use it to describe squirrels. I needed a word to describe the baby spawn so I made it up.
The poor cat and the poor dog. It does sound as if he’d been abused for the dog to have that reaction. I always think people who abused dogs should meet the same fate-being abused in the same way.
My sister lives in Colorado where they have droughts every summer. My niece’s town is flooded. She is okay but her husband’s work is under water. They had so much rain that several places got flooded.
September 13, 2013 at 5:42 pm
It’s never just the right amount. It’s either too wet or too dry. Kind of like being single with sex. You have long periods of too little interspersed with periods of too much 🙂
I assume your context for “spawnette” means Gracie was going after a baby squirrel?
September 13, 2013 at 6:18 pm
Exactly, Bob, and today the damn thing was back and Gracie had it in her mouth. Gracie wasn’t eating it but was playing instead. I had to go out and save it again. I don’t know what condition it is in. I will check later to see if it is gone before I let Gracie out again in the yard.