Summer Rain

Well, Mrs PP and I were about to go for an evening walk. Just as we locked the front door it poured down with a lovely bit of January rain!

I am happy for the rain. It will complement the watering I have been doing for the trees up the back.

Ordinarily I would not even contemplate planting trees out at this time of the year. Especially heading into the heat of summer. But despite the black easterlies, conditions have been mild and even somewhat overcast. Our sun however, when it does come through, is intense.

So I have been getting up around 5am and planting and planning and working on retaining walls and watering, before the heat hits. I have observed that the wattles on the grassy knoll are doing a decent enough job in the warmer months of keeping the grass down. It probably also has a lot to do with the reduced rainfall, but underneath the wattles the grass does appear to be showing signs of having to do with reduced sunlight.

The wattles are dropping leaves which are very, very fine and these are laying across the grass I left from cutting the hill back about a month or more ago. I also cut and dropped a few inner branches that were too shaded and were not growing particularly well anyway.

I hope that as other trees grow, they will also shade out more and more of the Kikuyu. As I get more material for laying across the ground I will mulch with that also.

Yesterday I found a Motorbike frog high up in a tagasaste tree. Such an obscure situation to find it in, given the heat of the day and the exposure it had to the sun.

I am sure that despite the brief but heavy shower tonight, that the frogs and the trees and the newly planted seedlings will find it beneficial.

We could hear the water entering the water tanks under the house which is also a really good thing. Especially for this time of the year!