Blind rain

An Estonian friend recently (re)informed me of how much Estonians tend to complain. While I haven't personally noticed any complaining from Estonians, I've learned from various sources that to be Estonian is, in one half-joking kind of sense, to suffer. Perhaps it took shape during soviet and nazi occupations, themselves preceded by a long history of wars and occupations by other powers. An easy target for contemporary complaint is the climate, which is often what I am asked about in relation to how I like Estonia. Winter reaches minus thirty degrees celsius with darkness by 3 pm, the ground coated with a frozen, treacherous layer of snow for about 5 months. Autumn and Spring are muddy and rainy. Summer is usually rainy and temperamental, with the addition of hungry mosquitoes and infectious ticks. These somewhat demanding conditions include a remarkable phenomenon that I'm sure we've all appreciated, but happens here quite often from Spring through Autumn. Russians call it "blind rain" - when it rains while the sun is shining. I also like the Hawaiian version - "pineapple rain." It never fails to quiet my mind.