I woke this morning to what felt like a miracle… the sound of heavy, cleansing rain. Due to a drier-than-normal November and a practically rainless December, by February pretty much the whole of New Zealand was covered in dead, brown grass, and by mid-March, everyone, especially farmers,were getting pretty desperate. An official drought was declared in some of the worst-affected parts of the country, and compensation given to the farmers concerned, who needed it most. Even our humble little ten acre block was feeling the strain. We had water issues: a mysterious leak in one of our paddock tanks meant that 20 000 liters was almost gone within a few days. Dad had to buy truck-fulls of water to sustain our livestock over the course of a fortnight before he found a crack in one of the water pipes. Our veggie patch stopped growing. Weeds and low-nutrient grasses were sprouting. We had to feed our animals hard feed, things like silage and barley, because there wasn't any good grass. By the end of March though, we had had a few showers, here and there. They weren't very long, or very heavy - but that was ok. It brought me hope. It allowed the ground to soften a bit, before real, good rain comes.
This morning another of those hopeful showers came. It was quite heavy for about half an hour, giving the earth the drink that it so desperately needs, before it dispersed into that crisp autumn sunshine, when the day takes a little longer to warm up than it did just a month or two ago. Autumn is one of my most favorite times of the year. Kind of the underdog The Seasons, it heralds crisper, alert mornings and beautiful sunrises, warm, rich and comforting food, bed socks, tea and anticipation for the coming ski season.
