Soaking dry

Todays little piece of "Zimglish" - there is a business in Mutare which advertises itself in letters five feet high as the "Exhuast Center"! I was lucky that cuaght my eye!

And then the rains didn't come...........

In the gardens at La Rochelle there is a furrow which carries water from the river down through the gardens, and into the dam. We have had rain about 4 times since April this year, and for the first time since 1986........the furrow has dried up.

This is not a disaster for the hotel because we draw our water from a borehole which produces the cleanest, sweetest, clearest water ever! It tastes of ummmm, just like, ummmm - well nothing actually! And it is really odd for us when we visit other places, like Harare, or indeed countries, like England and South Africa, and their water actually has a taste to it. Most odd!

(I believe the average glass of water in London has passed through the human body at least 16 times - ain't THAT a fantastic thought?)

What this will mean, though is that the animals and birds that normally drink from the furrow as it makes its way along the mountian and through the Dell, will now have to come to the dam to drink, and this will upset some of the natural balance of things. Yesterday - when the camera was miles away, we had a brown hooded kingfisher sitting in a tree in our garden - possibly he was eyeing the dogs? I don't know. But he sure looked confused.

Below is a picture of one of the ponds in the garden at La Rochelle - the pond with the stepping stones that run across it. This pic was taken last night. Bone dry.