Tag Archives: spring rains

More rain!

Heading down into the park, the flood waters are visible to the left

The rain started late on Tuesday and as I write this on Saturday, it seems to be stopping. Firstly, heartfelt sympathies to those up and down the country who have been badly affected – particularly the Nelson area and Northland where extensive damage has occurred.

The stone bridge is beneath that water

It isn’t the biggest flood we have had here but it is sizeable. We cope with our floods with resigned equanimity because they don’t threaten our house or property. We are not slip-prone and the house will never get flooded. The water comes up and up and then, because we have brilliant drainage on our volcanic soils, it goes down just as quickly when the rains stop. Others are not so lucky and we would be a great deal more stressed if we were faced with the devastation I see in other parts of the country.

What we refer to as the high bridge, which is not so high at the moment. Ralph is unphased by getting wet which makes a change from aquaphobic Dudley dog who heads indoors at the first raindrop.
Standing on the bridge, looking upstream

It is a huge issue in New Zealand where most settlement is around the coastline and often at the mouths of rivers so on the natural flood plain areas. It seems highly possible, if not probable, that torrential deluges are to become more common with climate change. This is not a comforting thought.

Confined indoors, I realise how much we live our lives out in the garden. I cleaned the oven instead and all I can say about that is my double width de Longhi wall oven is brilliant to use but was clearly designed by an Italian man who had never cleaned an oven in his life. I am not sure what to do with my time next if the weather doesn’t clear.

Maybe it is a good day to gather magnolia petals for a couple of jars of pickled magnolias. I was surprised last year at how easy these are to make and how delicious they are. They would be perfect to accompany rice paper rolls but we had already eaten them before I remembered to make the rolls again. If you want to try this at home, younger, smaller petals are best. They don’t keep their colour in the pickle so a pretty mix is not necessary. Keep to deciduous magnolias; michelia petals are not a nice flavour.

Out in the garden, I must acknowledge the resilience of the Dutch iris. These are not my favourite plant by any measure but the narcissi are bent double from the heavy rain, the magnolias and michelias are shedding petals everywhere, the camellias are browning on the bush while the Dutch iris stand firm and tall, unmarked by the rain. In the right place, they are a lovely addition to the early spring garden.

May the sun return for everyone this week. There is work to do in the garden.

The confluence of two streams entering our property. Despite the rain, you can see the stream to the right is reasonably clear water. This is because it has a long distance of riparian planting filtering the run-off before it enters the stream. The stream to the left is unfenced, unplanted and the water is running straight off grazed farmland, washing topsoil to the sea.