After three weeks of hot, hot weather, stretching the summer deep into the fall, gloriously, rain! Here are the first drops… It’s like the moon!

Why not. The moon came from here.

And the scent that the rain and earth give to the air on impact! Oh my! There’s just nothing like it.

It’s like Proust and his madelaines, it is. Now, here’s a cool effect: a tiny drop hits a rock and expands. I mean, really expands! Oh, a bigger view (yes, I’m getting wet and hiding my camera under my shirt in between snaps)…  Neat, huh. Pshaw, that’s nothing. Look closely:Look how the earth just embraces that water, eh! That’s the way things are done on this planet. And from the other direction, so see how the light handles it:It handles it well! And pulling back again (because we can)… Ah, we could delight in this moment all day, but it’s just that, you know, a moment. It passes. You have to enjoy it when it comes. What a party it is!

Whoo-hooo! That moment billions of years ago when the comets first struck the hot earth, well, it lives on! How cool is that!