The most precious resource

Rain at last!! Yippee, we can barely contain our excitement here in Queensland, Australia. Here in Esk, we have been experiencing the driest conditions. It has been like this for quite some time. It has been a struggle keeping the water up to our beautiful gardens. Our Comfrey seems to struggle at the slightest bit of good aussie heat! It seems in no time at all, we go from happy upright plants to ones that are now lying down and looking incredibly sad. But, once they get a hit of that all too precious water…..they reward you by standing upright very quickly. I’m sure that they are even smiling back at us at this point, showing their gratitude for some of the life saving essence of water.

We live on a small plot of land high up on the hill. Such a place of pure natural beauty. But, it can be so dry up here. We literally watch as the storm clouds (filled with that precious resource- rain water), seem to veer around us. They appear to be heading straight for us. Yay! we all get very excited about the prospect of rain around here. Then as quick as it comes it is gone. Gone right around us, following the tops of the mountains and once more avoiding us all together.

Up here on the hill, we all live from the water stored in our tanks. No rain, quite simply means no water. We personally do not use our tanks for watering the garden. We just cannot afford to use that precious commodity for anything other than drinking, washing and for our survival.

So as the dry months drag on without any rain in sight, we turn to buying water when there is no other choice. But, this is quite expensive, so needs to be planned for. This comes in the form of a large water truck that can carry 12,500 litres in a load. This will cost many hundreds of dollars to fill our tanks this way. It may also take up to a week for them to deliver, especially as everyone is needing it at this point. Now, for the garden we will cart water in a small (1000 litre) portable tank, purely for the garden use. This also becomes the water for the very rare car wash day, or for concreting or anything else that may pop up.

But, this week, we saw a change in the winds. The rain came and it stayed. We managed to collect a whooping 66mm of rain. Unfortunately, this will only buy us more time, it has not come close to filling our tanks. But, we are so very grateful for every drop we got. The gardens though….Wow!! They have been rewarded for being so resilient through the dry. The grass in green again, the plants are smiling, yes they truly are. They are looking vibrant and full of life and simply the most wonderful joy emits from each of them as we wander through the garden telling them how beautiful they are.

Naturally after the rain, came a day of gusty winds, trying so hard to dry up the land again. But, the land grabbed every drop of water and held it tight. The land was not ready to give that back yet. So, here we are days later, the ground is still moist , the plants all still looking radiant and yes they are still smiling. We are also smiling. The promise of rain is the promise of new life, renewed life and energy.

Life in the country truly is all about the rain. Because without it there cannot be life.

Thanks for popping in, have a magical week………………………………………Michelle