Rain, rain, rain and More RAIN

Unsurprisingly the last week of February it rained.  I was staying at Mum’s house for the weekend, thankfully we had plenty of plans to keep us occupied. Saturday we went shopping all day, and had lunch at Carindale Shopping Centre, I got lost it is quite huge now.  Sunday we went to a wedding expo in the city put on by Ideal Bride. (http://www.idealbride.com.au )  We looked at dresses, cakes, invitations, and were bombarded with people trying to sell us their wares.  It was quite fun,  I brought home a mountain of brochures and catalogues.  I certainly got lots of information on what I do not want, but that is a least progress.  Mum and I have started to think about planning my wedding, although it won’t be until around June 2014 if we start now we can look around in a relaxed way and try to get some ideas.  Plus the process will be fun.  It took me 2 weeks to design my engagement ring,  I have yet to plan the engagement party, which we are thinking will be around July this year.  Although there is no rush, so much is happening already, with my little sister about to give birth, Brett’s brother getting married, our best friends getting married, and many more significant occasions in the coming months, next year will be upon us quickly. 

Rain,  rain, RAIN and more rain.  This week has once again been all about the rain, this last month in fact.  We spend days staring at the sky wishing for rain, and now we have it, all at once! The week has been a tad dreary, with everybody I know getting a little bit antsy with all this rain and flooding.  Luckily although the ground is sodden and rejecting all extra water, we haven’t flooded.  The driveway has a small stream running down it constantly, and there are pools gathering everywhere however, even the ducks have had enough of all this rain, they sit hiding in their nesting boxes looking dejected.

Last week passed by well enough, each day bringing more rain, the fruit trees and our hedges have been appreciating it, all have a long awaited flush of growth.  Friday arrived, and with it many plans for my precious time on the weekend. I had been slowly emptying our chest freezer,  it is now time to start filling it with tasty morsels once again. We desperately needed to mow the lawn that I swear is growing a foot a day with all this water, lots of mulching and weeding.  The veg garden is a sorry state, it really needs to be pulled out, fertilised and re-planted…not to mention the usual house chores.

Optimistically Friday night I wrote a shopping list, and a list of chores to get to.  Needless to say, nothing much on my list was achieved.  Saturday it rained all day, we managed to get the groceries, play with the ducks for a little while, during brief breaks in the weather.

I baked Jam Drops, and a loaf of bread, because honestly what else do you do when it is pouring but bake tasty treats.  I don’t have much practise at baking, and my jam drops were not the prettiest you ever saw, but they did taste nice.  I will continue to attempt pretty baked goods, but I am much better at cooking savoury foods it seems.

Sunday there was a glimmer of hope, it had temporarily stopped raining, so we made a dash for the hardware to buy straw to put down in the girls coop, also some pipe for Brett’s idea to run pipe along the fence line so we can have a hose right down the back garden instead of carting watering cans like chumps.  Alas before we returned home, the heavy downpour began again.

 We were getting a little stir crazy at home, Brett decided to go on an outing to Master’s Hardware.  The hour drive from our house gave us time to chatter about plans for the garden and the rest of the house renovation.  We walked around the massive centre bought a few items using a gift voucher Brett’s Dad gave us for xmas, and then returned home.  Luckily for us, the rain had exhausted itself.

Through the light drizzle we could be a little productive in the garden, I say ‘we’ I mean Brett.  I happily dawdled around following him and the chickens with my camera, taking photos of all the beautiful mushrooms that had poked their heads up in the last 24 hours.  Brett dug his trench in record time, as the ground was extremely soft and waterlogged instead of its usual concrete self.  The chickens and ducks, gave him a helping hand, while Manny wisely supervised from a distance.