Well, it's more than a month since what ended up being the first of a series of torrential rainfalls. We have had SO MUCH water. That first Friday was 160 litres, then every single weekend following there was the same - in fact a couple of times more - water from the sky to overflow our tanks and make our freshly piled berm disintegrate in a river of mud. Add this to the roads to our house being dug up to lay irrigation pipes and you have a very muddy, inconvenient few weeks. We saw cars and vans completely bogged in sandy soil for days on end and veritable flooding over roads and through fields on several occasions. It seems that things have cleared up now (I am gripping the wooden table with one hand as I type this with the other) and that we will be able to get on with things like installing the solar system and general landscaping.
We have had other visitors apart from Oh Rain God too. He (or she) was accompanied for a week by my parents who came to stay and were promptly put to work! Here are Dad and Oscar making the most of a few rainless hours to rig up a very effective erosion barrier around one of our water tanks...
And here, we have Di who is really the best gardener I know clearing months of weeds from our (ever so slightly) neglected garden. One year's seeding is seven years' weeding!
Just previous to the rains we also had a Dutch couple, Rogier and Laila, come to stay for a week or so in their most marvellous George. They were very enthusiastic and were also put to work...am I discourging you from visiting with all this "put them to work"...? It is certainly better narrative but the truth us that people normally WANT to work and we really don't have to twist their arms at all. No really, it's true...
What else happened in October? Um...oh yes, we went back to work and school and the winter routine. Carla turned 10 and was given a number of gorgeous presents including a Viennese mask and a DIGITAL camera which she is making excellent use of. Here she is on her birthday...
...and...and...and I have finished the electrical conduit-ing which will hopefully be filled by a friendly electrician in the next few weeks, the solar panel people have confirmed that they will be installing in the mid two weeks of November or Movember as it is being called by a my mate Ad who is growing a mo to raise money for research into prostate cancer and male depression. If you feel like sponsoring him (we did!) then click HERE and go for it. His number is 121503.
We have had other visitors apart from Oh Rain God too. He (or she) was accompanied for a week by my parents who came to stay and were promptly put to work! Here are Dad and Oscar making the most of a few rainless hours to rig up a very effective erosion barrier around one of our water tanks...
And here, we have Di who is really the best gardener I know clearing months of weeds from our (ever so slightly) neglected garden. One year's seeding is seven years' weeding!
Just previous to the rains we also had a Dutch couple, Rogier and Laila, come to stay for a week or so in their most marvellous George. They were very enthusiastic and were also put to work...am I discourging you from visiting with all this "put them to work"...? It is certainly better narrative but the truth us that people normally WANT to work and we really don't have to twist their arms at all. No really, it's true...
What else happened in October? Um...oh yes, we went back to work and school and the winter routine. Carla turned 10 and was given a number of gorgeous presents including a Viennese mask and a DIGITAL camera which she is making excellent use of. Here she is on her birthday...
...and...and...and I have finished the electrical conduit-ing which will hopefully be filled by a friendly electrician in the next few weeks, the solar panel people have confirmed that they will be installing in the mid two weeks of November or Movember as it is being called by a my mate Ad who is growing a mo to raise money for research into prostate cancer and male depression. If you feel like sponsoring him (we did!) then click HERE and go for it. His number is 121503.