Sign of Winter

Here in Israel there's a plant that flowers when winter is beginning. Even though it has hardly rained and only from today, the 7th of Cheshvan, do we say the full prayer for rain, I noticed the flower over Shabbat.

As much as we need the rain, I wish it would only rain when I don't need to go out or hang laundry. There are years that the rain really gets me down. Traveling is so much harder in the rain. We don't have a car, and getting to work in the rain is much more complicated.

It is said that the rain is an extra blessing when it falls at night, when people are home snug in bed. Gd willing, we'll have that sort of winter.