Аннотация: "Цветы дождя" перевёл с русского мой сын Вадим.
Text copyright (C) 2007 Inna K.
Illustrations copyright (C) 2007 Vadim Bulitko
Once upon a time a little girl named Angela lived with her parents on a farm. They had a nice house and a garden.
There were many beautiful flowers in the garden. Different flowers followed each other through the season. In early spring, just when the snow melted, brittle white flowers with bright green leaves appeared. Angela's mother called these snowdrops because they appear just as the snow retreats. Angela thought that the flowers must be cold under the snow and felt had them.
A bit later, along the path to the gate, red, yellow and white little cups rose on slender stems. Arranged in two files, they flanked the path as if guarding it. The mother called them tulips and occasionally picked them up and put in a vase with water. Angela.... that her mother always picks the most beautiful ones. But the cut tulips died quickly in the vase and Angela did not like it. She even asked her mother to leave the flowers in the garden so they can live longer. The mother said the flowers are plentiful in the garden while the house should be adorned with them as well.
Then it was the time of the lilacs. The family and visitors all enjoyed the smell and the beautiful bunches of the flowers. Each bunch carried myriads of little flowers. Angela though that it is because each little flowers is afraid to be along and huddles together with its peers.
And then it got quite warm and even hot on occasion and the garden was blooming with many beautiful flowers. White camomile were imitated by yellow and gold marigold; tall and slender irises, fuzzy carnations and bluebells all flooded the garden. Angela could not even remember all of their names.
Not far away from their farm there was a big forest. Angela wanted to see all the wild flowers in the forest. She asked her mother to let her go there and look at them.
But Angela was still little and her parents did let her go anywhere alone. But she asked and asked and asked, and one day they all went there together. The girl was so excited, she ran ahead of her parents.
;The tall trees and lush bushes looked giant to her. Beautiful flowers covered the broad meadows. Suddenly Angela ran into some unknown plants on the ground. Amazed, she stopped and crouched down to see them. Some had broad caps sitting atop chubby low stems. Others were taller and more slender.
Some caps looked like small domes, others -- like little bells. The stems were mostly light brown, but the caps were of many different colors. Some were bright red with white flecks. Others were rich yellow. Yet others were velvet blue.
Mesmerized, the girl asked her parents what kind of flowers these plants were. They told her that these were called "mushrooms", they grew in a great quantity after a rain storm. So Angela reasoned that the rain drops were seeds and the mushrooms were the flowers that rose from the seeds.
Several days later the family went to a big city. There they took an elevator to the top of a tall building. A great view opened onto the city below. The girl saw many streets, houses, cars and people. Then with thunderous lightning, a rain storm broke down. The people on the streets opened their umbrellas. It looked to her like many nice flowers bloomed in
the street: blue, red, yellow and white.
Angela asked her parents what these flowers are called. Smiling, her parents told her that the "flowers" were umbrellas. So the girl thought that the umbrellas were city rain-flowers.
As they reached the street, the rain stopped. People closed their umbrellas and the girl thought that city rain-flowers bloom only while it is raining.
On the way home the family saw another beautiful sight -- colorful balloons drifting slowly in the darkening evening sky.
Excited, Angela exclaimed to her parents: "Look! Look! The city rain-flowers rose in the sky and bloomed again there!"
At home she painted all the flowers of rain she had seen: the mushroom flowers in the forest, the umbrella flowers on the rainy city streets, and the balloon flowers high up in the clearing sky.
![[Vadim Bulitko]](/img/i/inna_k/flowers_of_rain_english/titlepicturee.jpg)
![[Vadim Bulitko]](/img/i/inna_k/flowers_of_rain_english/title_paint.jpg)
![[Vadim Bulitko]](/img/i/inna_k/flowers_of_rain_english/umbrellas.jpg)
![[Vadim Bulitko]](/img/i/inna_k/flowers_of_rain_english/balloons.jpg)
![[Vadim Bulitko]](/img/i/inna_k/flowers_of_rain_english/endpicture.jpg)