Friday, November 5, 2010

Mustn't grumble


Mustn't grumble. We were in drought not long ago, but it's the 5th of November and already we have exceeded our average monthly rainfall. Yesterday we got 52mm (two inches), two days earlier 33mm. That's 85mm, and the average is 83. And here's the forecast for the next seven days.

At least I won't have to water the garden. And I still can do some gardening. In fact it should be easy. The poppies and brodieas are finishing and so they're coming out, and in will go a potager mix of flowers and vegies, which I always think looks pretty.

Every time I go out to my rain gauge I think of Michael Palin and his Eric Olthwaite character in the Ripping Yarns series. Eric's main hobbies were precipitation and shovels, and he was so boring that his parents ran away from home. Unfortunately for Eric, he lived in a part of England with very steady rain. He should have moved to Sydney! (At least the Eric story did have some excitement. He did become a famous armed bank robber, even if that did happen by accident.) Where was I? Oh yes, rain. Two inches yesterday. I have a rain gauge, and I keep records. I do have shovels but I wouldn't describe them as a major interest, though.

The good news is that some residents of Amateur Land are loving the rain. I had to bail out the goldfish's water garden, as the water was lapping at the brim, and for frisky goldfish one excited leap could mean a sudden change of environment. I actually lost one goldfish that way earlier this year.

And to finish on a positive note, the love-in-a-mist is popping up all sorts of colours in the rainy weather, including this lone pink person.

So, there's absolutely no good reason to grumble, just because it's raining a lot. The deeply dry soil is getting the soaking it needs, the water table deep below Sydney is being topped up. The ground is so soft that old plants will be a snack to pull out of the ground, and anything newly planted will just cruise along with moist soil below and rising temperatures flowing overhead.

But I do like a good weather grumble, especially when Huey from above looks down and thinks "you ungrateful sod!"



7 comments:

Onesimus said...

Precipitation, shovels and don't forget the black pudding: especially those puddings so black that even the white bits are black.

Jamie said...

Oh yeah, the black pudding! I knew there was something terribly important that I was forgetting. Thank you Onesimus!

Steve Asbell said...

I pretty much planned my garden throughout two very wet years, and this year has given us a huge drought to deal with. All the things I planted for their flood tolerance aren't too happy right now. :(

Lanie said...

The rain does have some benefits as you said. No watering and I've spotted 2 new species of frogs in and around the pond! Quite a decent size, so I am guessing they are visiting rather than one of my tadpoles that has grown legs.

Sarah McGrath said...

It is good that we don't need to water, however the watermelons are not liking all this rain and are looking quite sorry for themselves. We could also do with a little warm weather.

Helen/patientgardener said...

we have mega precipitation here but then thats nothing new at this time of year. We frequently have floods around this time

Paul said...

Here I am just starting out in gardening, choosing plants and positions that will survive the weather we have come to expect, and the drought breaks.

I bought a multi-tool rain gauge weather vane thermometer thingy last friday. Just in time for the downpour.