Monsoon Madness

The monsoon is heavy this year. Water rises from the creek at the bottom of the property… flooding the orchard and then the garden. The newly-made pond comes creeping up the sloping driveway… looking for its next victim.

Finally, a lull in the rain! Ruby ventures out via the kitchen door and cautiously advances down the driveway.

What a gorgeously glassy new pool! The water is green, reflecting the surrounding rainforest. Frogs croak as they jump from leaf to leaf, “Look at me, ma — I’m Tarzan!” Mosquitos buzz, looking for shallow water to lay their eggs. Cows chew neon-grass on the roadside in mute ecstasy.

Ruby inches close to the edge of the water. Look at my reflection so clear — must be very clean water! It’s true that the flood brings all kinds of rubbish but surely it also takes it out?

Birds cheep, chirp and chatter as they look for juicy worms forced out in the flood. “Hey, here’s two! You can have one.” The air is intensely redolent of clay with a muted background of damp greenery dripping everywhere.

Gosh this brings back memories… jumping into huge puddles on the way back from school… scooping up stranded fish with a muslin towel …pulling my brother’s leg underwater in the swollen river … halcyon days