Let the center of the umbrella represent the North Star.

  Rain cannot be explained in words. If you try to describe the magical transformation of a landscape by grey clouds dropping water, it will not be adequate. If you could make the drops pause like in the Matrix movies, even then, when you see a clear illustration of how life is moving and it's energy vibrates all around and inside of us. It cannot be told. It is too multi-sensual. Freud never interpreted rain as a dream image but others have said it represents grace reigning over us. He did assign some meaning to umbrellas though.
"All elongated objects, sticks, tree-trunks, umbrellas (on account of the opening, which might be likened to an erection), all sharp and elongated weapons, knives, daggers, and pikes, represent the male member"...Sigmund Freud, The Interpetation of Dreams

Umbrella #2, Watercolor, glass beads, the stuff on the bottom of the jewelry box, JMH

 Afuri, short for afuri Jinja is how you say rain in Japan. There are Rain dragons and Rain Wizards in Japan. Rain Shrines prayed to in times of drought just like spruce branches pull in rain for the Hopi.  Some rain gods like the weeping Hyades sisters in Greece deify rain as sad. In Japan, some stones are thought of as umbrellas, and have spring water poured on to them to make rain.

Everyone in this house is in love with Japan. I was just looking at the seven or so books on Japan I got Child#1 at the library book sale. The lonely planet guide, kanji character dictionary, an astronomy book, learn to speak, and Japanese culture.. I learned about Shinimiri.
Shinimiri is a complicated word but one of it's meanings is the feeling one gets watching rain pelt a field, garden, or landscape.

 Around Christmas times, we learned about Yokai Umbrellas.
Yokai came to my attention lately because child#2 got a loud toy wristwatch that 'spots' different Yokai when you slide plastic disks into it. I have heard a lot of shouted Japanese and English phrases repetitively especially in the car while driving.

 Made up of two kanji that mean" bewitching, attractive, calamity", and "apparition, mystery, suspicious", Yokai are a group of supernatural beings from Japan. My favorites are the umbrellas. Hone Karakasa  骨傘ほねからか, is a tattered umbrella that flies through the air on blustery days. Traditional Japanese umbrellas have 30 to 70 bamboo ribs, "Hone" means bone, because the ribs look like fish bones. "Karakasa" is an abbreviation of a phrase that means magical umbrella. Hone Karakasa, are "obake", which means thing that changes. Hone Karakasa fly into the air on stormy days coming to life like wild animated kites. Naturally, Hone Karakasa are thought to be an omen of bad weather.

Umbrella #3, Watercolor, JMH

The other umbrella Yokai is called Karakasa-Obake (唐傘お化け)
 In Japan when objects exist for one hundred or more years, it is believed they take on freewill, and a life of their own. They are called Obake, thing that changes, umbrellas, even futons and clocks, can become animated, no longer doing what they were made for, running around, kicking people, creeping them out, and sometimes being oddly helpful, " in Mizokuchi, Tottori Prefecture (now Hōki, Saihaku District), there is a story about a yōkai called yūreigasa (幽霊傘, "ghost umbrella") that has one eye and one foot like the kasa-obake, but it is said that on days of strong wind, they would blow people up into the skies.^{[5]"  Wikipedia} 

Kanō Enshin ([狩野宴信, Japanese, †1761)

 I've started painting with watercolors now instead of oil. I will probably be learning watercolors for a long time. Watercolors are more difficult than oils, less forgiving, more unpredictable. Water just cannot be controlled as easily. Here in California we love the sound of rain. People here talk about rain as a mystical experience. It means we are winning. The sound of rain is unmistakable, percussive, and carries the subtle scent of every plant it falls on. The worst thing about the drought is watching the trees suffer so without the rain, many trees look like they are dying. Everyday I pray for rain, storm after storm, with time to dry out in between.

Umbrella #4 JMH