Solstice shower
I celebrated the solstice
with a Walden Effect shower. Here's how to play along at home.
(Yes, I know this is a
bad idea, so don't sue me if you get struck by lightning. But it
sure is fun!)
First, move to a farm
out in the middle of nowhere so you have no neighbors.
Now wait until a thunderstorm
is getting ready to roll in. Grab those strawberry
transplants you
pulled out of a bed earlier and head out into the garden with a trowel
and bucket of water. As the wind picks up, stick strawberry
plants in the ground and wet them well --- every gardener knows that
watering your garden is a sure-fire way to make it rain.
Once the skies open up, rush
back to the porch. Shed clothes and grab shampoo as water begins
gushing off the roof and onto your head.
You might have to hop to
the side a bit if a gust of rain moves your water supply. It's
always a good idea to egg on the storm at this point, too, and to tell
it how good of a job it's doing (or to remind it that it can rain
harder!) Even your long-suffering husband won't hear your crazy
hoots over the din of water hitting a metal roof.
If the rain stops before
you're clean, hose off and head inside to listen as the thunder rolls
away into the distance. You should now be totally relaxed and
ready to spend a blissful evening watching lightning bugs.
Since my mother would
have a heart attack if I included any relevant photos, I've instead
inserted shots of the summer garden before and after the storm.
We'll be eating summer squash, green beans, (caterpillar-nibbled)
cabbage, and blackberries within the week, and are still enjoying Swiss
chard, carrot thinnings, parsley, basil, thyme, cucumbers, red
raspberries, and the last of the lettuce, snap peas, broccoli, and
black raspberries. The bounty doesn't quite feel like an
overflowing summer feast yet, but it's getting close.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Oh, sure, blame your mom. :^)
My mum always used to send us kids out in rain storms (well, at least as long as it wasn't lightning) with a bar of soap and an old washcloth. "Have fun and get clean," she would call out as she shut the door after us! And we pretty much always did . . . at least the "having fun" part, heh! She did make us wear our bathing suits, though, since we weren't out in the middle of nowhere with no neighbors at the time.
Anyway, it sounds like you had a lot of fun (and I'm envious of your "not quite" summer bounty)!
Ikwig --- I remember lots of playing in the rain after we moved to town too --- definitely clad then.
We had a downspout that didn't connect to anything, which made for great drenchings! Plus splashing in the water rushing down the gutter (and racing crawdads from my pond, which, in retrospect was pretty cruel since they ended up in the storm sewers.) Bliss!
Emily ---