Making something out of a rainy Tuesday

Children's handmade Valentines.

Before California became drought-stricken we had winter rains.  We are having some today and perhaps because it's been so long,  I think of February and not the beginning of January.   February is celebratory, filled with trappings, and it is easier to recall its rainy days than those that may have occurred during some random and unremarkable January.

No matter how well I think I plan, Christmas always catches me by surprise, gifts not made, cards, if made, not addressed, notes unwritten.  I am still in time to be early for Valentine's Day, should I choose.  The illustration above made me happy, my love for little handmade paper objets d'art being possibly excessive, decidedly enthusiastic.

I can build a time machine out of almost nothing.  Today all I required was unrelenting overcast with periods of heavy rain, some quiet and the memory of heart-shaped things on days just like this.  I could travel to my elementary school days, to times of rubber stamp exchanges or simply amusing my mostly-grown self with the purchase of various red ribbons, vellum paper in red and pink and every Mrs. Grossman Valentine sticker.  We love what we love.

How will I acknowledge what may be the return of winter rain?  I may doodle hearts in a notebook using every red pen I can find.  I may make a heart template and cut shapes out of scrapbook papers.  I may use some of the hoarded text-weight rose-patterned paper and make envelopes.  I may take a nap, lulled by the weather's unfamiliar sound.  I may continue to stare out the window.  I may go and read more about Twelfth Night (today) and think of Martha Washington's festive cake recipe that called for 40 eggs.  Or pour wassail on the ground over the trees' roots and sing.

It is raining at last.  Let us rejoice.