Late on the last night of the holiday I went out into the yard, and there was a pale ring drawn round the moon. Years ago my grandmother would have got in first: rain tomorrow.
달무리, dalmuri — the cloudy ring that forms around the moon.
Very high up, five kilometres and more, a thin cloud drifts in. The ice in it bends the moonlight, and the bent light gathers in a circle exactly twenty-two degrees out from the moon. That is the ring.
That kind of cloud tends to arrive at the leading edge of the air that is bringing rain. So when the ring stands round the moon, rain often follows eight to twelve hours later. Two times out of three, they say.
It rained the next morning. I woke to the sound of the chillies being brought in off the mats.