July 9

In Michigan

A warm and gentle rain fell today, a truly summer rain without the windborne front or violent storm. With a slicker and mud boots, it was perfectly pleasant to walk the two-track road and admire the effects of water everywhere.

The rain must have begun overnight, for the puddles in the low spots of gravel in the road were already full this morning, making the depressions look like miniature brown colored kettle ponds seen from high overhead; the sparse grassy ridge of the two track was the imaginary forest that divides them.

The surrounding trees were bent lower to the road, burdened by the moisture, and in several places the effect was a canopy where the boughs of one tree on one side met those from the other. Every leaf and needle had miniature droplets, and when any breeze stirred they collected and fell through the boughs making a sound like a rain chime.

Where the road departs from the cottage fronts, it makes a bend upon itself in a place where the canopy opens, permitting more sunlight. Here, just at the ditch edge where the gravel meets the mixture of wild grasses, heal all, Queen Anne’s Lace, and creeping dogsbane, I noticed plump red raspberries within. They are full this year on account of all the moisture, and I stopped to sample several, picking them off the rain-soaked bushes and putting them in my mouth one-by-one. This very spot I’ve known and enjoyed berries for over forty years, and I recall walking to this bend as a child in summer with pale white bucket in hand to pull berries and place within for eating.

Notes:

Purple Coneflower in Bloom.