Belle waited just outside the French doors, hopeful I'd appear and be reminded of our morning walk. I stepped out, surprised at the balmy temperatures and blue skies. I had expected a chilly, drizzly morning.
With no worries about rain, I grabbed my camera and we headed down the dirt road to one of Max's swimming holes. Birds sang softly around us and dew glistened on the grass in the sunshine.
Thoroughly soaked, Max clambered back up the hill to me and Belle, and we headed home. That's when I noticed the black clouds in the western sky where mere minutes before it had been cloudless. And they were moving fast. Faster than any storm I'd ever seen.
It was a half mile back to the house. Before we'd gone a quarter of a mile, the clouds had caught us, swirling above me, then beyond, swallowing the sun and the light, like a thick wool blanket pulled over the Hollow.
No rain. Not yet. But it grew cold. The wind whipped my hair as we trotted the last steps down to the safety of the porch, breathing a sigh of relief and amazed that we made it before the rain fell and ruined my camera.
But by the time I had the puppies' breakfast ready and stepped onto the back porch, blue sky was already breaking above the tree line. Those black clouds had been nothing but bluff and blunder.
I heard it before I saw it, a tap dance on the metal roof. It came with a rush, falling hard and fast and blowing sideways in the wind. Rain, the VIP at the end of its imposing black cloud escort. I had a great seat, right at the edge of the parade. It even reached out and touched me, a gentle spray carried by the wind up onto the porch.
Then it was gone, as fast as it appeared. Now there's nothing but blue skies, wisps of white clouds and sunshine framed by my window...and trees that still dance, celebrating the brief encounter, perhaps calling "Come back!"
(If you're having trouble reading this blog, if it's displayed weird or anything, please let me know. One of my longtime readers is having trouble and I'm trying to figure out what's wrong. Thank you!)
