Roses from the garden
Yes, it's been nearly two months... It's been a busy time - prepping for our next orchestral concert, getting back into study (having passed my Level 4 foundation diploma in purchasing and supply, I'm now into the Level 5 study and exams), out twice a week with different sci-fi activities, and hockey has started again, so my writing has suffered a wee bit.
It is immensely surreal at the moment to imagine the UK in the grip of snow, with my father in law taking four hours to do a half hour journey, and my brother taking 12 hours to do a 2 hour journey (7 of those were stationary). Here, we have the opposite problem. Very little rain has fallen since January, and we are in the middle of an officially declared drought, a total fire ban, a total outdoor water ban, and could potentially see water rationing (still only a possibility, but enough for our local papers to do a scare story on it...)
We're doing our bit - conserving water from the cooking pot so that I can put it on the veggies, and I'm looking at getting a rainwater butt installed so that we don't have the same problem this time next year. Sadly, though, it looks like I'll lose the last of my beans, and the silverbeet seedlings that have just started to take off - there's not enough of the grey water to go round, and I've spent too much time on my tomatoes to lose them now!
Fortunately, there is some rain forcast for this weekend, so I'm waiting with all of my pots and pans ready to catch as much as possible when it does come.
And, the silver lining is that with the total fire ban, we've been asked not to use motor mowers (for fear that sparks or the heat may catch the grass), so, what a shame, I can (for once) not feel guilty about my grass (and the dandelions) getting knee high...
