Jul 08, 2011: Long ago, when I was a child, we were tought to think, that there are some days scheduled for maximum pleasure: the New Year, Birthday and other holidays according to the calendar. In these days we were prescribed to be happy: either by going out to the street for crowdy celebration or by presents-giving and gathering at home for talking, eating and drinking too much. As years passed, the pleasure of such celebrations faded. They turned out to be just some days in the calendar, in many cases loaded with not-very-interesting-but-still-important-to-visit rituals. Instead, some other days started to bring much more joy: winter solstice, vernal equinox, return of birds, first leaves and flowers, etc.

But even these natural festivities are pallid compared to extreme, bewitching, frantic elation when a heavy rain pours after a long drought. The earth, dried up so that it has wide cracks in it, is gulping the rain flows coming from the sky; the plants, exhausted by long heat and thirst, are drinking hastily precious water and raise their leaves and heads. And we are telling to the skies: thank you, thank you, oh thank you! And could you (oh please!) give us some more water?.. :)))

It`s now hard to imagine the times when any rain was just an annoying fact for us — oh no, we have to take an umbrella, some clothes will become wet... Now it looks so funny. :)

genus Snapdragons Antirrhinum
species Edelweiss Leontopodium alpinum