RAIN! Photos of a rare joy in drought-parched Kansas.

We awoke this morning to a beautiful, soft, steady soaking rain. And the joy on top of that was it appeared to have rained all night as our ditch was completely full of water!

This made everyone in the house happy, including the 7 year old. We were all in a very good mood. And not only us, when I stepped outside to walk the dog it was like stepping into a crowded restaurant where all the voices are loud and have mingled together. Except it wasn't human voices, it was birds! They were chattering, chittering, squawking, chirping and flitting about in trees and in puddles. Their excitement at the cool dampness filled the air.

I can't blame them. I was so excited after so many weeks of dusty droughts and nearly forgetting the feel of rain, that I took a bunch of pictures.