We need a shower

10th September 2025

The last couple of days have been very hot and humid, and actually despite it being the rainy season we have had little rain recently. Any rain we have had has been a short, sharp shower, nothing substantial. The garden is dry. Some plants are thriving, the bougainvillea is a mass of flowers and this beautiful hibiscus greeted me this morning as I went with my spade to check on the leaf mulch pile for last autumn.

The leaf mulch was more leaf than mulch, dry leaf, so I won’t be using that anytime soon.

Meanwhile the installation of our new shower is going great guns. As we speak we await the arrival of the plumber to cap off and remove all the old pipes and simplify the complicated botch that was there before. The coral stone walls have been chased to receive the new pipes.

The old tub is gone …. To much fanfare …. What a wonderful space we now have. At this rate we will have a new rainfall shower before we get rain fall.

I was on a mission early this am to get stuck into some planting. The main man who is coordinating the new ensuite is a keen gardener and there I am chatting to him about the garden and my “very in the future” plans to plant ginger lilies. Yesterday he turns up with two buckets of both pink and red off shoots … so thoughtful… I’m extremely grateful but of course that now needs to be added to the to do list and it’s time limited. The other dirty work I had planned for today (cleaning bat shit off the mill walls) will have to wait.

I chose a good spot, under the kitchen window, shaded and also where the water comes off the roof. I spear the fork into the ground and PADANG …. there was no give and the ricochet of the fork made it obvious … this is not a good spot. 🤣 Alternatively it could be because it’s just so dry and compacted.

This is a better spot. With a good soaking, the ground softened up, but by 8am I was producing my own sweat shower ….. I also underestimated the pressure in the hose having turned it up to compensate for the initial pathetic trickle and got a massive back spray of mud and water. I’m filthy!!!! Hard but very satisfying work, three clumps of reds planted. I’m so delighted… just the pinks to go.

I definitely need a shower