A Sign

I could smell the rain long before I felt the cooling mist on my face. Off in the distance to the south I could hear a thunderstorm stomping its way towards Empire. I didn't get my hopes up because a shower came within a half mile of us yesterday but dissipated and left us dry as corn starch.
I had a good feeling this morning because as I was making coffee early I looked out the kitchen window at the deck and our Blazing Star flower had bloomed out overnight. It had two blooms that looked as if they were trying to out-do each other....twin stars in the Watson galaxy.
As daylight spread to chase the shadows off the deck, we took our coffee outside to enjoy the morning. I also picked up my camera to chronicle the arrival of the "Stars" and as I focused on the flowers, I heard Jilda exclaim "Wow!". I looked just to the left of the flowers toward the apple tree in our field and there was a deer just on the other side of our fence. I grabbed a quick picture of it before it scampered away.
That's how I knew it would rain. Jilda's grandmother Mamie would call the twin Blazing Stars and the deer a "sign". She planned her life by signs. Like most people raised in the 20's and 30's she had a garden and she eagerly awaited the farmer's almanac each year so she'd know when to plant her peas and tomatoes. When Jilda and I first married we'd go to see them now and then and she often offered advice to us because she knew we were interested in growing things. "Don't plant the corn until after May 5th cause the almanac says there will be a late frost this year. " The first time we didn't listen and planted the corn and as you might have guessed, it came a late frost and nipped the corn. Every day's a school day.
Anyhow, I've been in a great mood all day and I had a feeling it would rain today...after all, we saw a sign.