Cloud Watch II

It's moonsoon season, but there's been very little rain here in the northern part of the country, at least thus far.  I understand some parts of the south have been inundated, but for whatever reason the rainclouds refuse to move north.  Every day the weather forecast predicts rain, but then later it gets pushed back a day.  It's like the punishment the Greek gods subjected Tantalus to, the torment of having relief just within your grasp, only to see it withdrawn at the last moment.

Related posts:  Looming II

                         Ut Supra, Sic Infra

                         Luckiest Day Of The Week

                         Blooming Darkness

After The Rain II

 

Errant Airplane

Today the temps were bearable due to the hard rain that had started falling during the previous night and continued, off and on, most of the daylight hours, so I first took a walk around the neighborhood relatively early (collecting another big bunch of nymph shells -- wet soft ones -- in the process), then went to my doctor's office down the block (yes, the mini-mall in my apartment complex actually hosts a doctor's office;  my doctor was a little shocked that I hadn't eaten anything for a full day to prepare for the recommended blood test -- yes, Koreans are big eaters;  btw the phlebotomist had a very hard time drawing my blood;  I actually joked that I don't seem to have any blood left), then walked around some more, and came upon this:

It was so adorable I briefly considered keeping it, but then I realized that pin at the front was supposed to have a propeller on it.

I didn't like the thought of bringing a broken toy into my home (Hans Christian Andersen wrote about a defective toy in "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" and look what happened to it), so I put it back.  So call me superstitious, but it saved me the trouble of having to throw salt on it and burn sage and pray over it with texts from Christian and Buddhist scriptures to cleanse the negative energy.  Just kidding.

Butterfly On A Wet Afternoon

Rain X 2

Today it rained.  I, the rain-lover, had been excitedly waiting for it since I saw the weather forecast a few days ago;  we were supposed to get rain every day of this week.  Well, today it did rain, but now the forecast has changed to partially rainy days interspersed with sunny weather.  A bit disappointing, but still I went out for a walk in the rain, and although it was a moderately heavy rain, it wasn't enough to satisfy me.  Then I got a bright idea; I put in my earbuds and pulled up a rain sound video on YouTube as I went.  It worked like a charm!  It really felt like it was raining a lot harder than it actually was, what with the thunder sound effects and all.

Winter Rain

Happy hippo catching the rain in his maw

Paper airplane that hit a tree and crashed

A sidewalk comet that looks like a cyclopean ghost

Pedestrians caught short

And just as the weather forecast predicted, later in the afternoon the rain turned into sleet.

Clouds Cascading Down On A Highrise

Maybe tall buildings attract cloudfalls, like lightning rods attract lightning strikes?

Which reminds me -- one night some years ago, when I was still living in downtown L.A., a heavy rainstorm happened to rage over the city, with lots of thunder and lightning, and naturally I wanted to go out in the cool, wet night air and experience the rare thrill of a rainstorm in SoCal.  Only, instead of going down to the street below, I chose to go up on the roof and walk around taking in the view of the city.  I had my umbrella of course, but after a couple minutes of enjoying the wonderful sight of nighttime L.A. with all the bright lights in the rain, it suddenly occurred to me -- here I was, slowly walking around on the roof of a 12-story building in the midst of an electrical storm, carrying an umbrella with metal ribs over my head!

I ducked back inside, and fast.

The Wet Weather Continues

 

No. 5 Exit, Revisited

Yesterday I decided on an impulse to visit Myeongdong, the busy, tourist-friendly neighborhood where, almost three years ago, I accidentally discovered a beautiful view out of subway exit 5.  It had rained all morning (and would continue to rain all the rest of the day), and as I remembered this luminously beautiful sight from back then,

November, 2022

I became curious as to how different the view would be on a rainy afternoon with thick overcast as opposed to sunny midday, so I took the shuttle to the subway station, hopped on a No. 3 train and off I took.

Once I got to my destination though, there was a surprise waiting;  the young ginkgo tree, the star of the original photograph above, had been trimmed down to the point of looking dwarfish!  Ah well, it will grow back.  And I will some day come back to photograph it again in its reclaimed glory.

Anyway, as expected there was a heavy, unceasing stream of visitors and I had to wait a long time for an uninterrupted shot.  The moment it happened I actually yelled aloud "Yes, yes!" and this hapless lady with a boy in tow saw me with my smartphone glued to my face and stopped short.  I took three shots in quick succession and smilingly thanked her for hanging back.  She smiled back.

September, 2025

Related post: An Amusing And Touching Dream

After The Rain

Fallen leaves

(Uh...)

Cool Pigeon

And cloud asking for a kiss

Wet Leaf

The wet weather continues.  On my customary walk I came upon this rain-soaked stray leaf on the sidewalk.  How beautiful!

Worm Rescue Update

I very rarely see earthworms these days.  Back in SoCal it was pretty much a certainty that after (or during) a rain you'd encounter a worm or five on the sidewalk, but for some reason here in Korea worms are a rarity, at least in the city, and when you do come across them they must be different species because some of them are huge compared to the ones in Southern California.  Today we had some light rain in the morning, and I thought that was it, but then in the afternoon it began to rain again, and soon it turned into a heavy downpour, complete with thunder and lightning worthy of the summer monsoons.  Well, I happen to love rain -- the heavier the better -- so I broke out my underused raincoat, put on the wide-brimmed safari hat and the trusty old wellingtons and set out.  And on the way out I came upon a worm crawling down the sidewalk.  It was one of the bigger ones and I was actually a little scared to pick it up with my fingers -- it was almost like a tiny snake, plus slimy and slippery -- so I used a twig to pick it up and move it to the verge.  The soil was wet and softened from the rain so I think it would have made it home O.K.

Then on the way back I encountered another worm on the sidewalk -- a smaller one this time -- and when I picked it up it didn't put up any resistance so it must have been exhausted.  I put it down on the soil and covered it up with some plant debris.  I hope it was able to dig its way back in.

Number of worms rescued:  75

Always, Always.

Black

Black

Gray

Gray

Black

Black

White

White

White

White

Red.

Stand out or die.  Doesn't matter if there's a monsoon rainstorm going on.

 

Rain God Dancing

Over a wet street.

After The Rain II

Neither here nor there.  Just a pretty picture, is all.

As I will sometimes succumb to the impulse...

Wet Day In Jongno

Probably the last big rain of this summer.  The monsoon season was declared over long before.

At Seoul Forest

As a rule, I prefer to keep people out of my shots if I can help it.  But there have been exceptions.

Untitled, But Sort Of Fairytale-ish

Gwanghuimun Gate (not to be confused with Gwanghwamun Gate), Seoul, on a drizzly day.  With my umbrella as... a kind of punctuation.  Another Miyazaki-ish shot.

Wet Trees

Yesterday it rained.  I was hoping for more than what we got, but at least we did get some.  Just enough to blur out the trees^.

After The Rain

It rained in the early hours of the morning today, so the ground remained wet through most of the forenoon.  And on the wet ground there were these very beautiful things.

And of course, wet sidewalk means stranded worms.

When I come upon a worm that's lost out of the soil and in danger of drying out, my usual practice is to take it to a grassy area, dig a little depression in the moist earth with my finger, place the worm in it and lightly cover it up.  Until now, though, I did not know if that was the best way to help the worms;  this one assured me that I have been doing the correct thing all along -- as soon as it hit the earth it started to burrow in.

Number of worms rescued:  46