[Image by RidiculousDream at DeviantART]
I have always liked umbrellas in the rain. The first one I ever had was purple with a mother of pearl handle. I thought I was the grooviest person on the block at six years of age.
I saw a woman today with an umbrella decorated with an enormous sunflower. She looked embarrassed by the loudness of her umbrella. In comparison she was dressed quite drably.
I saw a man with a pink umbrella with a frill around the edge. He had obviously borrowed it from his wife or girlfriend. His head was bowed as if hoping no one would recognise him with his pink, frilly umbrella.
I saw a little boy with a green umbrella designed to look like a giant frog. The giant frog was obviously influencing him because he couldn’t help but croak as he walked along.
It has been raining for three weeks. Torrential, pounding rain. There are so many puddles on the ground the wind pulls at them like syrup. Children are making little boats out of leaves and tooth picks, watching them travel along the street.
The rain has no colour until it hits the land where it is filled with greens and browns, sometimes blues. I saw a puddle of pink form beneath a rose bush where the blossoms had fallen. It reminded me of gathering rose petals as a child in order to make perfume. It never worked – the petals turned brown and so did the perfume. I quickly discovered that none of my friends wanted to dab brown water that smelled slightly of rotting flowers behind their ears.
I like the rain. The arpeggios on glass. The windscreen wipers moving back and forth like a heartbeat. The clean-washed streets. The leaves on trees as shiny as if they’ve just been polished.
I do like the rain, but it’s also nice when it clears and a shaft of sunlight breaks through.
Selma In The City 
Love your whimsical descriptive piece and the title! (It reminds me of “Raindrops on Roses”, which I think is from a song from the movie Mary Poppins.) We’re having an umbrella day today. I guess I think like a 6 years old sometimes because that purple umbrella sounds cool to me now to have!
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I’ve got two big ones … one with the Renault F1 team logo, and Jenson Button’s autograph on it and one ”’ over 20 years old, with the Met Office logo and the words Meteorological Office … they gave it to me as a leaving present, after being attached to them for a year.
Not sure which is my favourite …
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I love rain too. Here in BC, the forest fires are already raging. It was so good to have a real downpour yesterday. I got some great shots of the stormy skies, Im saving for the “blue rain” prompt coming up on OSI soon.
This was a lovely post to read Sel. Sounds like you are feeling a bit better all around. I hope so.
Many hugs, G
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lovely descriptions, I love rain too. I love umbrellas but they’re no use in Edinburgh as it’s so windy and they blow inside out….
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I love umbrellas, sometimes they can’t help but make you smile especially those colorful ones which sadly aren’t seem much here in NY, lots of black umbrellas and it’s been raining for awhile as well
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We enjoyed the rain last night. No umbrellas – just Athena running through it. It was fun to see her hair plastered against her head, cheeks flushed pink, a sparkle in her eye.
My first umbrella was a clear plastic one with Winnie-the-Pooh on it. I adored it – and the first rain storm I took it in the wind blew so hard it inverted and broke. That’s when I learned that umbrellas like that are for fun, not for function. 😛
Poor guy with the pink frills. Bet he bought himself a black one today! 😀
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Well, it has been raining here in Chicago for what must be three weeks straight now. First we have the coldest winter on record – that never seemed to end – and now this!
Wow, I’m cranky tonight! 🙂 I love the sunflower umbrella. I’d buy one of those in a heartbeat!
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we’ve had a glorious spring with just the right amount of rain, but i know just west of here they’ve experience a very wet one…..usually we get their weather.
i always lose my umbrella, so buy cheapies. And then, I find a new one someone has left behind. I figure they are communal items like lighters. they just keep getting passed around.
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I keep meaning to find a polka dot umbrella but never seem to get round to it – I have just have two boring ones (a blue one and a black one!). As a child I used to like those clear ones with a colour just on the edge that curved right round over your head like a dome. My granny always wore one of those fold up plastic rain hoods though.
I like hard fast rain storms but not constant rain. Although the odd in-door day is nice – snuggled up by the fire.
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I love rain but we don’t see nearly enough around these parts, more’s the pity.
I saw a beautiful umbrella the other day while I was with my Twilight obsessed daughter. It had a picture of Edward and Bella sitting in the woods I think and the woods were all over it. Very pretty and a steal at $45.00….NOT.
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I think I would like an antique parasol. Silk and lace and a tassel. 🙂
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GEL:
It was a really cute umbrella. A mini one. I still have it somewhere, but it is so small it wouldn’t even cover my head. Glad you liked the title!
TRAVELRAT:
I like the Met Office one. Very quirky and official. If anyone looked at you, you could say : ‘See, I told you it would rain!’
GERALDINE:
Can’t believe you’re having forest fires. I hope they manage to contain them. ‘Blue rain’ is a great prompt. Can’t wait to see what you do with it!
CRAFTY GREEN:
It gets a bit windy here too but I do remember Edinburgh as being particularly windy.
LISSA:
I love the colourful ones too. I think the people who own them are saying: ‘It might be gloomy, but I’m still smiling!’
TEXASBLU:
Aww, your poor Winnie umbrella. It is so upsetting when the wind takes it. I can just picture Athena running through the rain. How exuberant!
STEPH:
You guys really have had a bad bout of weather. You must be longing for the sun. I worry about all these chaotic weather patterns we are experiencing. I wonder if they will get any worse.
DANA:
You’re right about the communal aspect of the umbrella. Over the years I have found at least 20 of them on buses or trains. Usually I pass them on to someone who doesn’t have a brolly, that way I keep the good umbrella karma!
RELUCS:
Do you remember Rain Mates? My gran always had one in her bag. She got her hair set once a week and hated to get it wet so was always whipping out the little plastic Rain Mate. I love polka dot umbrellas – they are so groovy!
ROMANY ANGEL:
The Twilight merchandise is incredible, isn’t it? I saw two young girls in Dymocks today drooling over the Robert Pattinson Photo Album or whatever it was called. ‘I want to marry him,’ one of them said. It reminded me of me and my sister drooling over David Cassidy!
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Hi TINA,
Parasols are such delicate, beautiful things. I love them too. Actually, they are incredibly practical for summertime in Australia. I might just get one for the coming summer. So nice of you to visit!
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i am not a rain lover,, give me a clear blue sunny sky any day… but the visual of all of the various people and their most interesting umbrellas was delightful….
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Good thing is … if you take the Met Office umbrella and it DOESN’T rain, when it stays rolled up, you can’t see the logo.
(And, I always have the get-out that I was on the research side, not a forecaster)
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PAISLEY:
After 3 weeks of rain I’m searching everywhere I can for some colour. The umbrellas are the only bright spot on the horizon.
TRAVELRAT:
I don’t even think a researcher would be safe from the wrath of the public 😀
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I remember making Rose Petal perfume!
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“I saw a man with a pink umbrella with a frill around the edge. He had obviously borrowed it from his wife or girlfriend. His head was bowed as if hoping no one would recognise him with his pink, frilly umbrella.”
Ha. I’ve met guys who are uncomfortable ‘lady’s’ umbrella when the only difference between it and a guy’s umbrella is that the guy’s umbrella will have a hook style handle where as the the lady’s one will have a rounded handle.
A great, uplifting umbrella story, Selma, very colourful, wonderful imagery .
I’ve found that inexpensive umbrellas aren’t much chop when it comes to wind and rain. They usually turn inside out and buckle. And, because of the rate that I lose umbrellas, I won’t buy an expensive one.
A friend once told me that he went to the lost and found at Central Railway Station to see if his umbrella had been handed in. The attentant directed him to a container that hundreds of umbrellas in it. “take your pick” said the attentant.
Thanks for the story, DavidM
Your mother-in-law, your husband, your son, and you are in my thoughts and prayers.
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I love [LOVE] the rain, but, not too many days in a row. That can get depressing. I also enjoy a cool looking or funky umbrella. I think wild umbrella can lighten the dismal mood of bad weather!
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MAMA ZEN:
I think most little girls have made the perfume, haven’t they? It was so much fun.
DAVID:
Thanks for your kind wishes. XX
It’s true what you say about Central Station. I lost a favourite umbrella on the train some years back and went to lost property at Central. There were hundreds of umbrellas. I left with a better one than I lost!
MELEAH:
Funky umbrellas are the best. I often get grumpy with prolonged periods of rain and a bright brolly really cheers things up!
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Blue Rain is the OSI prompt this Sunday, I do hope you’ll join us Sel!
Will you still be posting for my first Movie prompt? Don’t mean to be pushy, I was looking forward to your story though…I hope that there are more participants as time goes by…..slow start but I guess that’s to be expected with new memes.
Hugs, G
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