It's raining, it's pouring
the little old lady ain't snoring
she went to bed far too late
and got up late in the morning
but she doesn't mind since
the atmosphere's glorious
rain soaking garden colours
to proportions ferocious
sparkling and lovely, drenched
and fantastically bodacious
just another way to greet the day!

The interior gloom of an overcast day doesn't really cast a sober pall inside our house. What the dim morning light does, however, is accentuate the large numbers of stained glass windows in this house to marvellous shadings of colouration, brilliant enough to lift an otherwise-stifling appearance of darkness. Dispelled in a way even were the stained glass absent, thanks to the number of large windows in this house of ours.

Looking outdoors to the front gardens represents a brief mental journey to a world where gardens play their vital role in lifting our spirits and bringing us the joy of viewing nature's bounty, colourful and varied. A black squirrel hung from the bird feeder early this morning, determined to do its utmost to empty it of its contents. Nearby patiently awaiting his turn was the male cardinal. With the squirrel finally departed, even when torrents of rain gushed over the landscape, a tiny nuthatch sat on the bird feeder, taking its choice of what the mischievous squirrel had left.

The nuthatch can barely be seen in the photograph above, seated on the left platform of the feeder. Even bees go about their business unperturbed at the ferocity of the rain. And so will we.