It’s been stormy this morning, hailing, thunder, and pouring rain all before the sun came up. Now it’s getting lighter and the rain is easing off. It’s turning into one of those muted Seattle December days of grey. I remembered some photos I took a few weeks ago during the rain when my Purple Smokebush, cotinus coggygria, still had its leaves. This is a great plant in the garden. Ours is in the planting strip between the sidewalk and the street and has the most beautiful, vivid purple leaves and sprays of foamy, pink flowers in the Summer. These flowers are what gives it its common name. You can imagine them as clouds of purple smoke. In the Fall, the leaves turn from purple, to yellow-green, to brilliant orange and red with a pattern of brown spots. Gorgeous, and even more so when intensified by the rain drops. And, great inspiration for the studio on a grey, rainy day.