Rain on a tin roof

Today is a very rainy day.  Over 5mm already today and it is showing no sign of stopping.  There has been some rain recently and it is moving from the frosty, snowy cold time of year to the rainy, windier but milder time of year.  I like the turn of the seasons, the garden moves from one into the next with effortless ease; gently but relentlessly getting ready for the next phase.

We haven't had huge amounts of rain really over the last year or so.  Last year in particular was very dry in this little corner of the world.  Not desert dry, but enough to give some of plants some problems and my pond became very low; only now would I consider it as full as it can be.

Sometimes when it rains I like to sit in the conservatory.  It is not the warmest room in the house this time of year, but the sound of the rain on the roof is amazing.  Sometimes when it is really raining hard it is difficult to hear anything above the noise.  It reminds me of caravan holidays when I was a child.  My three brothers, my parents and myself would go off all over the place in our (quite large) caravan.  The early years of these holidays were in a touring caravan that hooked up behind the car.  We had great adventures with this.  There was the hill just outside Barmouth that the car always got overheated when trying to pull the caravan up it.  Well, in my memory it was every time - maybe it happened once, but there was smoke and it was quite frightening.

There were the times when maybe the car was going a little faster than it should be been and the caravan started to snake behind us.  That was fun too (when I say fun, think terrifying).  Oh and there may have been times when we went around corners too fast and everything flew out of the cupboards onto the floor.

I think of the smell of melamine cups and plates and plastic beakers.  I remember the sterilised milk in the funny shaped bottles that did not need refridgerating (we had no fridge in the caravan), but it tasted disgusting.  We ate a lot of tinned food and I still have a guilty love of Cadburys Smash instant potato.

After some years we got rid of the touring caravan and bought a static caravan in a holiday park in Norfolk.  I hated it.  I still hate it and it was sold 30 years ago.  There is one corner of Norfolk I think it will still be many decades before I return to (if ever).

What caravans have though is a tin roof which meant lying in sleeping bags listening to the rain thumping down, day after day, night after night.  I always loved the sound of the rain and when I stand in the conservatory listening to the rain I think about caravans and holidays and this photograph that always makes me smile.



Comments

  1. Great post!
    Which one's u?
    Best
    R

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  3. Thanks :-) I'm second from the bottom - sitting behind my little brother

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  4. Lovely memories! I was just wondering where you all slept in the caravan?

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  5. The seating area in one end converted into a double bed for my parents and the seating at the other end converted into two sets of bunk beds - very clever! I loved the bunk beds

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  6. Great to have good memories such as these. I at one time was often told not to live in the past. My standard answer,-- the past will be with us for the rest of our lives, none of us know what tomorrow will bring.

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  7. My partner had similar camping holidays and tried to emulate these by serving me Bachelors packet rice whenever we went camping. In the end I had to point out that, while I was sure they brought back happy memories for him, please, pretty please could we stop having the frankly horrible stuff. I love the sound of rain; our last house had velux windows in the roof and dozing off to sleep with rain thumping down will always be a warm and cosy abiding memory for me. Dave

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  8. Batchelors rice was a bit exotic for our caravan days - but I can understand the appeal :). I loved in a house with velux windows too, they are good when it rains.

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