Living in the NorthWet...or...how I learned to dance in the rain....

I'm beginning to have as my mantra, "Green is overrated."  I'm trying my best to have brown be my new favorite color.  I am envisioning the desert with cacti, rocks, skies that don't rain down on me and my springtime projects.

As a "Born And Lived-in-the-Northwest-All-My-Life Person, I am admitting to all who read this that I am seriously condsidering abandoning the green and adding brown to my color wheel of comfort colors.

Winters in the NorthWet can be various shades of gray and all the colors of rain. We hearty NWet types have used the phrase to compensate for the rain and gray skies of winter, "It's why everything is so beautifully green all year around."  OK; I agree. But, that doesn't mean I don't long for a sun break where I can actually look to the skies and see the promise of spring:  blue skies and a bit of warm air.  It seems this year, so far, that is not to be.

Truly, the Northwest has been blessed by an abundance of green things like really BIG trees with shallow roots that fall on houses in rain and wind storms, moss that sprouts and grows....EVERYWHERE. And, we get the most interesting creatures sliming their way through newly planted veggies and flowers.  If you think you've done battle with Mother Nature in other parts of the country..you ain't battled nuttin' until you've tried to go to war with the Northwest slugs.

My backyard mulch-eating happy to live along side my old garden pot Banana Slug earth engineer!

I have a hard time killing things that are living. That's probably why I had so many skrawny house plants over the years.  Was tough to pitch them out when they still had a bit o' green. Hence, the indiginous Northwest Banana Slug crawls through my backyard untouched.  The Banana Slug, from what I have learned by watching them (are they watching me?), is that they are territorial little buggers...ah, that would be little sluggers.  I am currently watching one that lives alongside a pot on a terraced wall.  Every evening when I check the pot, the slug is back.  I can't knowingly salt shaker a sentient creature that calls an old pot ... home. So, I am "One" with the Banana Slugs and allow them to cohabitate in my back yard....as long as they leave my plants alone.  Funny thing though...I've never seen one devouring them...it's the other slugs with their voracious appetities for all things I plant that throw caution to the wind, and venture out to feast.

The other slugs, alas, are fodder for death.  I have to turn a "blind eye" to the salt shaker death machine when I patrol my vegetable and garden pots.

I don't stay up late enough to hear the very latest weather report, but I do listen to the news in the morning to find out how many layers of warm gear I need to put on.  Lately, I've had to layer alot. But, since I really am an optimist and feel that anymoment Spring will...well, spring into action.  I cautiously went to the closet and took my capri pants off the shelf, dusted off my sandals, ironed my T-shirts and have begun my guilty pleasure of tanning.

And even though it continues to be NorthWet I have learned that I really am OK with the rain and the green, the moss and the endless puddles. I found myself remembering a time in my life when my kids were little and we took a day off from the routine of school and farm chores and stomped in puddles just for the sheer joy of the splash.

And one cold, NorthWet day, those remembered  feelings of joy and playing hooky and jumping into the marvelous puddles was shared by me and my grandaugher, Lizzi who taught me once again the joy of puddles and why I love the NorthWet. Splash-On, Lizzi and dance in the rain.