Friday Ramble - Rain and Rusty Undertakings

In recent weeks, we awakened (for the most part) to gray skies and rain beating a staccato rhythm that shunned meter and metronome. Puckish breezes cavorted in the eaves and ruffled tiny leaves in the garden like decks of playing cards. A thousand and one little waterfalls appeared out of nowhere, and limpid, impromptu streams danced their way through village gutters carrying twigs, oak leaves, pine needles and fallen petals. Here and there were precious islands of stillness. Sheltered by overhanging trees, a friend's pond was like glass, its white and scarlet koi hovering almost motionless in the early light with their open mouths like tiny perfect "o"s. Sometimes they seemed to be swimming in sky.

At times, there was water in our garage, and the old Passat rested in a shallow pool until the accumulation gurgled its way down through frantically working drains. When the waters receded, I used an trowel to scoop rust into mason jars and tucked them carefully away. Natural iron oxide pigments produce lovely ochre and umber hues, and my gleanings will be used in projects somewhere up the trail, possibly on other rainy days. My fingers are trying to cope with the effects of chemotherapy (painful peripheral neuropathy to name one such), and it will probably be a while until I can actually do anything with a brush, but that doesn't stop me from thinking up "stuff". 

While claiming my rusty bounty, I thought about the fact that humans have been using iron oxides in artistic undertakings as far back as the prehistoric caves of Lascaux. I would be a happy camper indeed if I ever managed to produce something a scrap as vibrant as the Chinese horse. I thought too about the fact that a heady brew of rust (iron oxides), carbon dioxide and water is where sentient life begins, and that the Japanese word for rust is sabi (錆) as in wabi sabi (侘寂), the all enfolding aesthetic or world view centered on notions of transience, simplicity and naturalness or imperfection. 

Clouds and rain, then sunshine and blue sky, then back to clouds and rain again, who knows what spring days will hold? When good weather prevails, we go off to the woods, and I lurch up the trail a few hundred feet, a long way from the miles of rugged terrain I was once able to cover, but there is gratitude in every step.

On wet days, we listen to a little Bach or Rameau on the sound system, read and drink tea. We watch raindrops dappling the windows, the painterly way in which trees, little rivers and old wood fences are beaded with moisture and shining in the grey. Each and every raindrop is a minuscule world teeming with exuberant life, whole universes looking up at us, great and bumbling creatures that we are. Rain or shine, up and down, in and out, them and us, it's all good.