Fall Rains –
Rain is always good. But fall rain is special. It’s kind of like a mother. The ‘mother rain’ is the rain that germinates all the little wildflower seeds like Texas bluebonnets, Indian blankets, and Queen Anne’s lace. That’s why wildflowers are the first ones to come up – they germinate in the fall and grow all winter.
It’s always nice to look at all the flowers in the fall, like sunflowers and blazing star, but if you look below under the dead leaves you can see next year’s wildflowers growing. They make a tiny green carpet that tells how next spring will look. If fall rains don’t come, the spring wildflower crop, and the grass, will be much less.
Fall rains help wildflowers but they are also beautiful and dreamy. After a rain everything is wet and sparkling and cool, and the sun sends shafts of light to little patches of ground. The grass looks brighter, and the ground is a deep red. Everything looks nourished after a fall rain.
There’s an old saying “April showers bring May flowers”, but really October showers bring May flowers. Papa showed me that.
