We all know Australia is the wide brown land but no more than at the moment as we enter our fifth year of drought and suffer under level 3 water restrictions. No sprinklers, no car washing unless you use a bucket only. Plant watering 2 days a week with a bucket or hose and definitely no hosing verandahs or patios or using pressure hoses (my second favourite power tool outside the leaf blower). Our once lush, wooded acreage has been reduced to dust and leaf mulch and 7 green olympic rings where our Envirocycle (told you we were green) sprinklers sporadically pop up and water a 10 metre circles out the front.
A friend in Jersey emailed to say he couldn't open my emails because he'd dropped his laptop in a puddle and it was behaving badly. "Puddles? What are they" I retorted, seriously - haven't seen one for months. Then yesterday the sprinkling started, heavy skies and just enough moisture to stop the washing getting dry. I knew there would be trouble as the dogs went ballistic trying to come inside before a mighty crack of thunder and wham . . . a downpour. The smell of all that fabulous rain hitting the parched earth was superlative. To make it better, it rained all night - yeah this morning I saw puddles - it usually dries off in 10 minutes in this heat. Another 5 days of this and we might have a bindi free patch to sit on during the summer! Then again, it takes more than 1mm to break a drought. Ok lads, if you're gonna pee on the garden, do it on the green patch just outside the pool . . . it needs all the watering it can get!
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