Drought

Everywhere is very dry, even Job's tears have dried up.

Three of the nutmeg trees are looking very unhappy

and several of the citrus have given up trying

including the lime tree at the top of the hill and the grapefruit that bore so well last year.

The saddest sites are the vast areas of forestry that have been burnt deliberately, like the hillside behind Cornel,but T's valiant efforts at persuading 'the river that has become a stream' to pass through our lettuce, strengthens our resolve and reminds us to count our blessings.

Of Food and Shelter

Today was close and humid and the thunder began to roll just as I finished weeding the okra and T gave the grass to the cow and her calf.

I peeled the tania and onions whilst T went to the river to fish, returning a few moments later
with enough crayfish for the pot, which he combined with the above, together with dumplings, split peas and basil. It was delicious.
Xena, hating thunderstorms, ran for cover, unimpressed with today's menu.

On the Mend

T and 'The Back' much better today.
Three beds forked for eggplant and
lettuce weeding commenced. Lots of
rain and the river came down.

Busy

This has been a very busy week, the weather was very kind and helped us by sending much needed rain. T forked the land just below the beans, for new okra. He made the holes which I wet before sowing, 3 seeds to a hole, following something I read somewhere recently

"rain or wet,
wet when you set"

The basil sold well in town, T walking and selling, in the build up to Christmas, also the beans which we sold at $3e.c. per pound. The bottles of sorrel that I made were not so popular but would have sold had I made wine, something to remember for next year, however, we enjoyed drinking them and sharing with
family.




Sunday saw us weeding and clearing close by the river, where the cive, rocket and big thyme are, we also dug up the first of the 'saffron' (turmeric) and put it to dry and T cut back the big bamboo by the river to allow more light and air to pass through.

Dry Season

There is a change in the air
since the previous post and
the rainy seasons' grand finale.
Now the days are shorter,
the nights are cooler
and there is less humidity. T makes
preparations by putting a pipe
in the ravine that marks the boundary
at the top of Corn Buck. Using a series
of Heath Robinson pipe and hose
connections, we will be able to water
the hundreds of lettuce that we planted
in the beds that T made on the top.
Meanwhile, the dwarf beans
are bearing so I weed, mole , mulch
and pick them









together with more sorrel
and give thanks for nature's bounty.

Of Big Thyme and carrot beds

It was cool on reaching Corn Buck today
and refreshingly dry following the thunderous
downpours that we have been experiencing
recently.

I planted some more beds of big thyme,
an undervalued plant, in my opinion.
I much prefer it to the traditional bushy
thyme, both for flavour and appearance.
It is also very easy to grow.









T excelled himself, as usual,
creating new beds for carrots,
sowing two varieties at the same
time,











working on the principal
that if one fails the other will not.

Rain

Rain, lots and lots and lots of rain, as I weed beans to the right of the footpath and T plants cabbage and tomatoes down in the beds where the first set of sweet potato were, the drains gush with water, a hundred little streams spring up from nowhere and the water covers the big stone ,where we have to pass to get home, in the river. T hauls me across as the torrent pours into his boots and Xena fights the current as she successfully swims to the opposite bank.
The Season is here at last.