Get your wellie boots on, ladies and gents, boys and girls, because we are enjoying an awful lot of rain at the moment.
Even if it stops soon, we’ve got plenty of puddles to splash about it. Fantastic! Because while many people don’t like rain, you’ll not be surprised to learn that the glass-half-full team here at Happydesigner LOVE IT!
We were wondering why we enjoy rain so much, so we put our rain-hatted heads together to come up with reasons.
What’s great about rain:
- No rain, no planet. Yes, without rainfall, the Earth will likely be an arid place devoid of life. We need it to drink, bathe in, irrigate crops… the list is endless.
- Rain is perfect for your mental health because it produces negative ions. You can’t see, smell or touch them, but we do inhale them. There’s a school of thought that says negative ions in our bloodstream create a chemical reaction which relieves feelings of stress and anxiety.
- The sound of rain is very relaxing. Some find it hypnotic, as the noise of raindrops pattering outside and on the roof helps them to fall asleep. Scientists say the sound is a little like white noise, which the brain finds calming.
- It’s a great excuse to get outside. OK, so you’ll need to don the waterproofs, but a good walk in the rain, however wet and windy, is a fantastic tonic – you’re getting fresh air, exercise, and boosting those endorphins.
Did you know rain-lovers are called pluviophiles, defined as those who find ‘joy and peace of mind during rainy days’. That is most definitely us.
Rain is inspirational for art and drawing. We love rain-related illustrations, and there is a myriad of books, poems and paintings which feature rain. And when it comes to songs, there is a plethora.
Here are some of our favourites
- Singing in the Rain – that great song from the 1952 film featuring Gene Kelly jumping through the sidewalk puddles.
- Singing in the Rain – featuring Paddington. If you’ve never seen this or have not seen it for a while, you can catch it here. It’s joyous.
- Singing in the Rain – featuring Morecambe and Wise. The comedy double act also did a take-off of the Gene Kelly number, and it’s a hoot because the only person to get wet is Eric. You can watch it here.
- Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head – featured in one of our all-time favourite Westerns, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, and Emily Dickinson have all written about rain, although not always cheerfully (not everyone loves it as much as us). And as for nursery rhymes? Dr Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain, and it didn’t end well for the old man who went to bed and bumped his head when it was raining.
Here are three fun facts about rain, courtesy of the Met Office:
- Sometimes, rain can fall from the sky without ever reaching the ground. It happens when rain falling from a cloud evaporates or sublimes as it approaches the Earth’s surface.
- Rain smells! When raindrops fall on dusty or clay soils, they trap tiny air bubbles on the surface, which then shoot upwards and burst out of the drop throwing aerosols of scent into the air.
- When they first form, raindrops are spherical, but as they fall, they resemble a jellybean shape.
There are so many different words and sayings for rain: drizzle, mizzle, showers, bucketing down, pouring, pelting, it’s coming down in stair rods, it’s raining cats and dogs… Rain really lends itself to our rich language.
If it’s raining outside, and we’ve inspired you to go out for a walk, that’s great. We’ll have our usual lunchtime or end-of-day perambulation, whatever the weather. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy our rainy-day illustrations. For more about children’s book illustrations, please get in touch with the Happydesigner team.
Written by Jo Smyth (www.wordworker.co.uk)
