Finally, a wet day!

July has usually been a wet month in South Australia.  Wet and cold.  Well this year, it was dry, and cold.  Each day of not rain, I was working in my friend’s garden, bringing order into chaos, and preparing beds for Spring plantings.  Making hay while the sun shines…..

At last, overnight there was a little rain, and today continues to be damp, and cold and windy.  My only complaint is that there could be more decent rain, enough to penetrate into the subsoil.  The mean rainfall in this area for July is meant to be 50mm…… but this year is was 20.8mm.  At the beginning of the sowing season in this cropping region, there were reasonable opening rains, but each month after it kept tailing off….. and now many crops are beginning to yellow off from lack of moisture.  Hopefully there’s sufficient in this front to make a difference.

Of course, sunny days meant the farmers, and gardeners were out in full force spraying the living foliage with killer poisons.  As always, I suffered the effects from the air pollution of these poisons.  By the end of some days, I could barely function.  It was only the global situation and my belief that food shortages may be forthcoming, that kept me working as best I could.

Much animal manures have been added to the garden, which has been quite deprived of humus, and now I’m able to find some earthworms when I disturb gently in some places.  Like us, the earthworms need food, and water, and given half a chance, Nature’s little helpers turn up to assist in enriching the soil.  Bless them.

It has also felt good to be back working with the soil, and doing what I love, nurturing plants.  I’ve often said, the only thing I really have missed about not living in sticks and bricks, is having a garden.  Yes, not having a good kitchen is a downside, and same applies to a bathroom.  But beyond that, is not being able to go and and gather produce from my well tended garden. When travelling across state borders, there are many quarantine restrictions, so even a pot plant wasn’t possible.

However, I’m stuck in South Australia for the forseeable future, so perhaps I can find space somehow in the van for even a pot of parsley.  I’ll be moving on from here soon, not sure where yet, options are limited in this grain producing state…..and I DO need unpolluted air for a quality of life.  It’s been cold up north in the Flinders Ranges, with SNOW today at Blinman! 

Fred and the cats are ok.  Their lives are a bit more constrained while living here, and last weekend we went away, back to a former camping spot, and they had a chance to explore outside again.  It was most enjoyable.  But in winter, it can be very bleak, so it’s a place we’re keeping for summer.  If the world doesn’t fall apart further by then.  Options…. we keep looking at options.  The only certainty in these uncertain times is change.

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