rain? rain!

Easy drive here yesterday. Very little traffic or slow-downs for construction (the biggest time-waster in most Mexican travel). The best thing about the drive was seeing the jacarandas, now in early bloom. I never cease to wonder at their indescribable color. As we came through Celaya, heading up into the mountains, there was a stretch of them on both sides of the road, maybe 200 total, all decked out in that shimmering blue color. Worth every minute of the 7 1/2 hour drive.

As we're settling in to our lovely apartment, the distant roll of thunder reaches our ears. Rain? Could that be a warning that it's going to rain? May and June are the months for that here. By 5 o'clock the sky was leaden, the clouds low, the light gone. We stood out on the tiny balcony off the bedroom, looking west, and watched it progress from a mere sprinkle to real a rain.

Looking east the sky was even darker and more threatening.

It didn't last long ~ maybe an hour ~ but it was enough to give everything a nice drink and to wash away the accumulated dust on the leaves. And to give us a beautiful rainbow in the eastern sky. Best of all, the ground was wet enough to exude that delicious after-the-first-rain smell. Wet, muddy, earthy, pungent. Even a little pine-y up here at 7,000 ft. This morning the birds are singing, the sun is bright and warm, the sky a brilliant blue.

On today's schedule is a bus ride up to the indoor market for a walk-through, always a treat, and then lunch at Olé! Olé!, a couple of blocks away. Famous for fajitas. Pictures to follow, of course.

Started a fascinating book on the way up (recorded), Sarah Vowell's "Assassination Vacation" about the events that took the lives of three presidents, Lincoln, McKinley and Garfield. I got on to her because of a review of another of her books, "The Wordy Shipmates." I'll get that one when I get home.