"Weather Permitting" - What a concept!

 I caught myself in a recent email telling a friend that we'd go hiking tomorrow, weather permitting.  Ridiculous.  The weather doesn't permit me to go hiking.  I hike rain or shine.  In fact, like John Muir, I love storms.  I especially love to confront a brisk wind on a mountain top.  The fact is, the weather does what it does, and we decide what we do or don't do under various conditions.  Some people like to experience more wildness and some don't.  So, I'll revise my earlier comment to "I hope my students will be interested in hiking tomorrow, even if it rains.  The key is to dress appropriately.  After all, people do just fine in weather much more severe than anything we are likely to encounter around Quincy on September 4!
With these thoughts in mind, I wandered around my yard early this morning, following a night of heavy rain, and found the Oak Treehoppers (above photo) responded by simply huddling closer together, apparently no worse for the wear.  They might have enjoyed it!

 The raindrops on the remaining leaves of our Irises were a nice photo subject.  With a hand lens, I think I spotted some tiny ciliates swimming in some of the drops.  They were probably "happy" to get rain so they could dissolve their cysts and swim around a while after a long, dry August of being part of the dust on the leaves.

 A single rain drop can be a disaster for a spider or its web, but it's a numbers game.  A percentage survive whatever challenges nature presents, and they do need water.  This web in our Yarrow was somewhat broken up by the rain, but managed to catch a few drops, and I'm sure it will be repaired before another day passes.  And the Yarrow looks refreshed already.

I covered my pile of firewood rounds with a tarp, more or less, but the rain made the chips and surrounding soil smell so good, I felt like splitting some more firewood, even it continued to rain.  They key is appropriate clothing.  Also, for safety reasons, I'd wear non-slip gloves.  In the past, I've spent weeks at a time camping and hiking in the rain, so I know it's easy to keep warm and dry if that's the goal.  A fringe benefit of rain for a naturalist is that all sorts of bugs and birds get active and the mosses and lichens perk up.  Various bugs that have lain deep in the soil during a parched August return to the surface and gather beneath various boards, rocks and pieces of bark, waiting to be discovered by my camera.  Enjoy the rain.  We are 2/3 water!