Summer ? in Hawkes Bay

Yesterday I decided that I would use the morning to get my Christmas cards done.  I'm already too late for the ordinary post and will have to use airmail once again.  I weakened at lunchtime and decided to spend a couple of hours on the croquet lawns before feeding the children and looking after them whilst Wendy and Martin went to a dinner.  But before that I had a few things to get in Town.  The croquet was not to be.  I met a friend in Town and she and a friend were just going to Ujazi for lunch.  The sky was black.  Lunch looked a better bet than croquet.  It was.  The heavens opened.  Fortunately The Handbag was in an undercover carpark 'cos I'd left the hood down.

The temperature changes are very sudden and dramatic too.  On Sunday it got to 35 deg on my deck.  Yesterday it was 22 deg at one point and dropped within 15 minutes to 15 deg and then to 13 deg which is where it is now.  This is summer in Hawkes Bay?

Since then we've had rain and thunder and more rain.  In fact the rain started in earnest around 4pm yesterday and it has continued without let-up in the 19 hours since then.  There is no sign of it stopping.  A friend from Northland tells me that they are desperate for rain up there.  Everything is green in Hawkes Bay although I understand we are technically in the fifth year of drought.  Does'nt seem like it to me.  In fact it's undoubtedly the wettest spring since I've been coming to NZ.  Last year I had the lid on the car on a few occasions for the first there months.  This year it's been on a lot.  But even the farmers aren't all happy.  Apparently it's been the wrong sort of rain for the soft fruit farmers (too heavy and damaging to the fruit) and too much at the wrong time for some because it's diluted the sugar content.  There is never a way of pleasing everyone.

But I'm playing the Glad Game.  I'm not playing croquet this morning but I am managing to read and write blog postings and I'm going to finish my Christmas cards, enjoy lunch with a code cracker or crossword and pop into Town and post my cards and do one or two odds and ends.  Life's pretty good.

The rain it poureth

 

in stair rods

 

bouncing off the roof of the water pumping shed

 

making my drive a quagmire

 

and providing a bath for this happy Blackbird.