I am sitting here wondering what to write about today.
Do you ever get weeks that fly by, you wake up Monday and the next thing it's Friday? And you wonder what on
earth you have done in between?
I actually know what I have been doing though.......praying for rain!
We are really getting
desperate here in our corner of the country as we are steadily marching through our rainfall time and approaching our dry, windy summer, without much happening. Our average for April is 39 mm and we had one good downpour that delivered 33 mm all in one go! And that was that! (We were camping at the time......with a wet dog!!) But, last month (May) we had only 11 mm instead of our average 49 mm, and this month (June) so far, we have had the grand total of 0.
Nothing, absolutely nothing. (The average for June is 68 mm, July is 77 mm, and August is 61 mm.)
Our collective dams for the Western Cape stand at an average 29% capacity, which means that they are actually 71%
empty! Take into account the silt and other junk that lies at the bottom of dams, and they are more likely to be at about 15% capacity! Which also means that many of them are at less capacity than that! And that is extremely frightening.
We are doing everything that we can to save water. Every spare drop is collected in a bucket and then used on the garden. My garden is slowly dying apart from the succulents that are loving the dry weather. The countryside greened up beautifully just before the May rain and the farmers all rushed into the fields and ploughed for their lives. The wheat shot up in a bright green carpet and the wild-flowers started to push shoots through the dusty khaki ground. And we all waited for the clouds to roll in from the sea and do their thing!
We are still waiting!
To add to the gloom, for the last few days we have had a hot, dry berg wind from the NE that has seen our temperatures rise from the usual wintry single figures and low teens, to high twenty's, and we are back in our summer clothing. What little moisture was left in the ground has now gone.
We had some damp days and foggy nights when Rob's sister was here, I am sure she was missing the hot humidity of Cairns! That fog left enough moisture on the plants to allow them to survive, but that has gone and the wheat is starting to turn yellow.
And
still there are no firm restrictions in place! Watering is still allowed at certain times, although most people are aware of the need to conserve as much as possible.
After all, what do we do when it is finished?
Pop off to the local Supermarket?
