Sunday, September 18, 2005

Raindrops keep falling on my head

Hebrew is full of onomatopoaeic words. "Tif-tuf", one of my favourites was relevant today for the first time in a while. As I left the office for my 11 o'clock meeting I felt the gentlest "tif tuf" of rain on my head and clothes; the accompanying smell of the first rain as it wets the dust is one of my favourites, symbolising life, wetting the dry ground, waking the dormant seeds, signalling that cooler weather is on the horizon at least.

The "Yoreh" or first rain is something which logically enough I wasn't aware of in England. Here it has a special meaning - being outside in it is a pleasure rather than something to moan about. We probably won't feel it again until October time - one of the pleasures of living in a hot country rather than the one I left behind. Then we'll have the annual past time of watching the kinneret rise and the countryside turning green again.

Gilly

1 comment:

ifyouwillit... said...

The first rain excited me too, strange though as in Manchester we had enough rain to set me up for life.

As I stood in my friends garden in Elazar on Sunday morning and felt the tiny raindrops, I looked forward to all the things this time of year brings, although if the weather is anything like the weather we had in February, I'll be pining for the summer once again!