Memories of rain

It seems incredible that we are having really good weather and not only that; it has lasted for well over a month now. Ireland  being the most westerly country in Europe, has a tendency to be a very rainy place at the best of times, which is why we are so green, except for my back lawn were no grass seems to grow. Mind you as I have said before, that is more to do with Rocky my boxer dog. Over the last few days it has rained a wee bit, but the sun still seems to come out and dry it all up again. Living in Dublin, we tend to get the least amount of rain in Ireland, all though anyone from another country will think Dublin is a very wet capital city compared to anywhere else. When I was 18 and I first came down to Dublin to do my cabinet making apprenticeship and I noticed that there was something different about the weather, but could not put my finger on it. I had been living in Dublin for about a month and, it started to rain and WALLAH! That was it! It was the lack of rain that was different.  You see I am from the beautiful county of Donegal, and it rains there every other day as we are near the ocean and mountains It’s strange how you become used to the weather, as I did not notice the lack of rain compared to home. It’s the same when you have a memory of when you were a kid and it seemed like it never rained and summer was warm with endless days of sunshine. I also remember asking my grandfather about the weather when he was a young boy, and you guessed it, he was convinced that they had better weather and a lot less rain at that. Mind you I remember the summers as a child, and I mostly remember the sunny days back home in Donegal. I wonder do all people have the same kind of sun shine filled, selected memory of childhood as I do and if so, what do people from really hot countries remember. Are their memories of childhood filled with rain showers and clouds?

Now, that’s not to say I don’t remember the rain when I was a child because I do. Some of the memories were quite sweet and visual. Like when I was in infant school and I was fascinated by the rain drops that created doomed bubbles and concentric circles on the puddles in the playground.  I also remember thinking it was going to flood and we would all get washed away. Mind you, this was in the same week we learned about Noah and his ark. Let’s just say, I had a very vivid imagination back then. One really good memory was of my grandfather giving out about the RTE weather forecast.  For those of you who don’t know, RTE is the Irish national TV and Radio station www.rte.ie  .   ANYWAY, as I was saying, my grandfather out of pure frustration started giving out about how he thought the RTE weather men were prejudice against Donegal as they were always forecasting rain for us. Its little gems like that, that just warm my hart on rainy Irish days.  At this very moment it has just started to rain a wee bit, and I wonder if my grandfather is up there looking down at me writing about memories of rain.