Rain, rain, rain

Aside from thinking about whether to use the Oxford comma in my blog title, I have done little today.  For sure the weather kept me indoors--it rained steadily and hard for most of the day.  I took a cold shower in the dark as the power was out for several hours, but other wise I mostly sat and read.

That was a good use of my day, and actually, it has apparently been a good use of much of my evenings.  With apparently either more time or less ambition, I have read a lot of late--if my Kindle library is accurate, I have read 12 books since the 18th of May.  Admittedly they are far from the Russian novelists but they combine for a respectable page count if not for deep meaningful literature. 

This weekend, I have read the first three books of "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant," by Stephan Donaldson.  They are science fiction of the Tolkien ilk, though written with a bit better vocabulary.  You know, there is a quest against an (almost) insumountable foe, but with the strength of your companions, the (almost) unwilling (totally) imperfect hero perseveres.  But these quests against Lord Foul take 1500 pages to complete.  Yes, I know, not the Russian novelists, but enjoyable.  I am really re-reading these as I first read them more than 30 years ago.

In this series Tom fights The Despiser/Lord Foul/etc  as the evil one covets a ring.  I know, it sounds silly, but one key underlying foundation is that this battle also affects the land.  Essentially all power, good and bad, comes from the land.  Good power is so evident when the earth is healthy that it almost startles those who are unaware of its power.  The impact of unhealthy land is also almost visceral. 

If nothing else, this continuing series of flowers does show the impact of a healthy, green, fertile land.  Though the hard rain was hard on the delicate flowers, it also decorated them with diamonds of rain drops.  I like these shots, and they renewed me this cold dreary rainy day.  Even if they did take me from a book for a bit.