Gardens After Rain

I was caught in a sudden heavy downpour Wednesday afternoon after a meeting, and took cover on the porch of the building shown directly ahead in this photo. I had my tunes with me - my iPod shuffle - and the ten minutes or so that I spent on the porch were happy ones. People walking by may have reported that they saw a girl dancing at the edge of that porch, half in and half out of the rain. And I would have to admit that their eyes did not deceive them. :-)

This is another scene from the gardens around the duck pond on campus. The lovely, winding path through the gardens that I posted a photo of yesterday is just outside of frame, to the left of that old-fashioned light fixture on the left side of the bridge. To the right outside of frame is the duck pond itself, which is just loaded with mallards and their offspring these days, and a few turtles who like to bask on the sunny rock in the middle. Flowers lining the path include a profusion of pink bleeding heart (lower right corner), and grape hyacinths and daffodils.

The building in this picture is the University House, which Penn State's presidents used to live in. President Walker, who was president from 1956 to 1970, was the last University president to live there. For any who may be interested, a bit of its history may be found here. My favorite paragraph is this one:

"The last major renovation to the President's House occurred from 1939 to 1940 when the large portico and columns were added, giving the house the Southern plantation look popularized at the time by Gone With the Wind. Famous guests from the early part of the 20th century included industrialists Charles Schwab and Andrew Carnegie. President Dwight Eisenhower visited several times in the 1950s when his brother, Milton, was Penn State president (1950-1956). During his presidency, Milton Eisenhower would leave the porch light on to indicate to students they were welcome."

The building is now part of the complex that includes the new alumni center and its gardens next to the duck pond, which I visit frequently.

I had never noticed how much acrobatics were involved in my photography until my sister commented on it, after a two-day trip with me to Atlantic City last year. Her comment was that I was always bending over, climbing, crawling, leaning to get the shots. (No wonder I'm sometimes tired after a day spent taking lots of pictures.)

To get this particular shot, I was sort of . . . kneeling/lying on the wet walkway under my umbrella (yes, the sun had just come out but it was still dripping), shooting upward.

When - suddenly! - a huge rabbit came racing across the path in front of me and nearly mowed me over! I certainly wasn't expecting company under my umbrella, and I'm sure the last thing the rabbit was expecting to find was a girl with a camera crouching/lying under an umbrella blocking the path. To say we were both startled would be an understatement.

All misadventures aside, it was a lovely day to visit the gardens. Even with the rain. Maybe even more so because of the rain, which transformed the path into a glistening, reflective surface. It almost seemed to shine. You may wish for sunshine every single day . . . but this dancing girl says: Let it rain . . .

The soundtrack for this scene is Eric Clapton's Let It Rain. The version in the video is from 1985. Here's a little story to go with the song. My husband saw Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana perform live at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1975. The venue had an open roof, and as it started to rain mid-way through the concert, they seamlessly, flawlessly, without missing a beat, moved into this song: Let It Rain.