After countless promises by the weather forecasters and days in which clouds built up menacingly only to disappear again without having shed a drop of rain, it is finally, finally raining! Best of all, it began with a rain that is rather uncharacteristic for this area: a very fine drizzle, a type of precipitation far more familiar to those living north of the Alps. It got the ground wet and ready to absorb the more violent downpours predicted for later on tonight and tomorrow morning. Usually, we get the deluge first, and because the ground is too dry to absorb anything, the rain just washes away the topsoil. This obviously causes almost immediate flooding and, in some areas, mud slides.  Let’s just hope that things proceed as forecast for a change; we need water very badly.