One of the many nice things about autumn, is that a bit of rain doesn’t spoil the day.

In the summertime, if you’re headed to the beach, determined to swim and sunbathe

but then a rain storm blows in, your day is scuttled & scuppered.

(I thought those terms seemed more sea-worthy than “screwed up.”)

You can go back home, put on your DVD of “South Pacific,”  stand real close to your plasma widescreen,

soaking up a bit of UV radiation, eating your rum raisin ice cream cone with a dusting of sand.

Uncork the vintage bottle of Coppertone you found behind the clothes dryer and have a few sniffs.

But it’s just not the same as a day at the beach.

In your living room, it’s rare to have a gull swoop down to steal your doughnut, for one thing.

 

 

 

But this time of year, a walk in the park on a cool drizzly day is A-OK with me,

bathing in a great woodsy, earthy aroma.

The color of the wet leaves and the mushroom-y notes in the air intensify.

It doesn’t smell of decay, but kind of rich, really.

It’s a smell of health & wealth, as the leaves fall to enrich the earth.

 

 

It’s cool enough to wear a rain jacket, so you’ve got pockets for an apple and a few snacks.

Just enough rain to lay the dust, same idea for taking a hip flask along.

So here’s a few cellphone snaps from a couple of walks, on wet days, sometimes taken during a brief sunshower or an actual outbreak of sunshine.