The last few days we’ve been “warned” of heavy rain. The first of the warning days evolved from low overcast to clear blue bird. Hmmmm. The second day remained a threatening broken overcast, warm and muggy, but no rain.

Now, this morning, it’s raining. Not really heavy, just a light winter’s day on the coast rain. Rain that will slowly soak a garden down to the deepest roots without digging runnels in newly turned soft soil.

Heavy rain happens in an afternoon monsoon storm. An inch or two in a half hour–or maybe an hour if it’s a long squall. The roads literally run inches deep in water and cars slow to a crawl.

Worth a warning? Hardly. It happens every afternoon. It’s monsoon season.

We might receive 25 mm—roughly an inch over a day or so. And we need a warning?

In Vermont, they sell a ‘Vermont Weather Stick” that tells you the weather. It is guaranteed to be accurate. The base is half a small log, maybe 5 inches in diameter and a foot long with the bark left on. Two thirds of the way up a twig slightly smaller than your little finger sticks out about a foot. This twig has all the park removed and is blonde in contrast with the dark bark of the base. The instructions tell you to mount it outdoors in an exposed position where it can be seen from inside the house. Then it goes on to say, if it’s dry, it’s not raining. If it throws a shadow, it’s sunny. If it’s wet, it’s raining. And so on. Perfectly accurate. Perfectly simple.

This is spring in Fernie. It might rain. It might snow. It might even be sunny for a day or two. Enjoy it. Catch up on your reading. Fix your bike. Put your skis to bed for the summer. Catch up with all the folks you’ve missed over the winter.

Watch the tulips bloom and then the petals fall off.

Enjoy.