A Southerly Storm

Whenever it rains on the west coast of our island, we get a rainstorm the following day, here, on the east coast. It even makes it into our inland valley and is much appreciated because the tendency here with all these gusty winds, is for frequent droughts. Although we had plenty of unending rain all year giving us a wet fall, winter and spring, our summer was mostly dark and dreary but January actually turned hot with some scorching summery days at long last. But in certain parts of the ground here the cracks in the soil are so deep that I avoid walking too close to them. Might fall in. And, every once in a while, we have a day in which we start out with one kind of extreme weather, in this case it was sweltering heat, and then within minutes there’s a change over to its exact opposite. But it’s so dramatic a change that I must drop my tools and go in the house quickly as the storm doesn’t wait for me to finish my work.
I find it rather shocking that with all that inundation we’ve had, the tendency of this soil is to dry out like concrete and then the earth opens as the plates shift. We’re in an earthquake zone so those plates must be damn busy shifting all the time My concrete pathways and a patio also shift. The holes are getting noticeably larger. Other low-lying areas here have had the opposite happen to them. They were under water for at least 3 months if not twice that long, which we avoided walking into but even nearby it was still too wet to navigate easily. Our feet would sink into squishy mud in those really sodden areas of ground, especially since it kept on raining. Now with the advent of the bright sun, white moths are here to ravage my cabbages by laying their eggs on the developing leaves no matter what I do to deter them. But the warn sunshine is so very healing after all this gloomy weather and I sure prefer it over dark days that get me down.
Being so weather oriented I check to see what the next day is supposed to bring, on the night before. Then I know what I’m going to wear and if I have to water the garden, which here is a very big job. On those days I aim for an early start, but invariably it gets hotter earlier so I miss the cooler parts of the day to start my tasks. Lately that keeps happening to me. It’s very annoying but no matter how I rush around inside, there seems to be an extraordinary number of things to accomplish domestically before I can go play outside.
We have different hoses that attach to extend the length that invariably pull apart as I lug the contraption around swearing as it comes apart somewhere, where one is connected to another. But I am now being extremely careful with it when I move it around to different parts of the garden, per John’s instructions and that seems to be working. Slow poke in action is a common occurrence these days. And, apparently, men know all about these things unlike when I ask him about anything inside the house, which of course is my domain. It figures. They’re the experts of the outside world. But the hose really doesn’t seem to be coming apart as often so he is right on this one. Two points John on your side of the board. On really hot days this job can take up to a couple of hours front, back and sides. So, I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me.
A couple of days ago as I was doing my usual unending garden maintenance, my astute husband told me to look at what was coming in the distance. And there it was. A real southerly was bound for our house. And with it would come lots of cloudbursts. And boy did it pour down within minutes of taking these photos. It was a really good rain.
I let out a sigh of relief. Not only was it a stunning event to watch but it also meant that I didn’t have to water later. God and Mother Nature had that covered. Lucky Lolly finally caught a break.

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