Stormy (mountain)weather; it's been raining all the time, been really raining allll the ti-immme

Last night a storm came full on strong. I was alone, as GMR had something he had to do in Asheville. I was already in bed, early (for I love to go to bed early and read a good book for a few hours. Bliss!) and when I heard a particularly LOUD clap of thunder - a clap that meant business, a clap that was as if two planets rammed together and their sonic boom sounded through the heavens, I looked for the flashlight beside our bed...it can be quite dark in the little log house without Moon to shine over us. Then I rose and padding through the house, I found a few candles and a candle lighter, brought them into the bedroom, and lit the candles Their fragrance is Japanese Cherry Blossum (of which I have some lotion of the same name: it carries a spicy scent that I like, not too sweet).

The fragrance drifted in the room, the candle-lights flickering from the ceiling fan. I climbed back in bed, picked up my book.

Three more BOOMS thundered, shaking the little log house--Jupiter and Uranus crashing their chests in a display of power! Poor Lazy Fat Labrador Jake came into the bedroom, put his head on the bed and stared at me. I petted his big head, telling him it would be okay, not to be afraid. My old fat dog girl Kayla used to bark at the thunder--she hated it so and I used to have to calm her just as I was Jake. When he was calmed, he made his way back to his bed in the other room. He has two beds now - we kept Kayla's bed and he sleeps in it and in his own--one is in the living room and one is here in this room where I write.

I read my book, inhaling Japanese Cherry Blossom, feeling the cool breeze falling into the windows and laughing across the bed, hearing the rain storm over the roof and the trees and the cove and the ridges, the candle lights warming the nutmeg-orange walls and the golden log-walls and the quilt my mom made me with reds and greens and tans and browns and the ruby sheets and the light wood floors and the garnet throw and the dark wood furniture and the black iron bed - the room is fall even in summer.

The storm stormed furious, but I didn't mind. I was tucked into my bed. I thought how lucky I am and I recognized it then and I recognize it now.

The lights didn't go out, and I'd read until I heard GMR's car roaring up the steep road, the garage door opening - -without my knowledge of it, I'd fallen asleep to the sounds of rain, the scent of blossoms, the snoring of Jake in the next room, the whisper of wind stirred by the ceiling fan - my book still held in my hands as if I were reading in my sleep.

Such was the evening in my little log house in the cove.