Vindication and memories: a weird combination

Yesterday, we had the mother and father of all deluges. We get at least one of these a year. Or should. This year we've had two. One was "normal". Yesterday's wasn't. It wasn't - or isn't - because it's still raining. Usually, when these events happen in summer, they're short and sharp, bringing relief from the heat and, yes, humidity which for many is an unexpected phenomenon in our usually dry valley.

In around an hour, about 25mm of rain fell. I had been dreading this week's rain because big rain is one of the key reasons for the last bit of the last part of the stoep reno. Actually, it's not a renovation: it's work that should have happened when the house was built. And wasn't. Now, with climate change and the increasing frequency of these big water events, addressing this type of deficit is urgent. As is overdue maintenance on the roof.

The plan is that this work is part of the reno project and would be done before winter. Our "proper" rain comes in winter: usually July and August. Consequently I'm grateful it's not freezing cold - with the wet. This will dry out in the next week as the warm, autumn weather returns.

Back to the vindication of the reno project:

The work still to be done is on the south gable end of the house and where there is no storm water drainage and the foundations are not properly protected. This may not have been a problem if the house was not built with sandbags: the water percolates in, wets the sand and then percolates up. Really. Consequently, each winter there is rising damp. By this time of the year, it's dry. Now. Not.

The three pictures on the right of the collage below, show how serious the problem is. I am grateful that the rain stopped when it did otherwise I'd have had mud flooding the front stoep.

The rain is still falling - but gently. That's better for the mountains, gardens and dams.

Childhood rain memory

This morning, when I was reminded that a new school term had begun this morning, I was reminded of being a new relatively new pupil at a new school at the beginning of a new term. This was in Grahamstown in 1970. That morning, it was raining as hard as it rained yesterday. I was seven years old and remember my father carrying me, covered in his raincoat, down what seemed to be a steep hill, to my classroom. That rain, like this, came with a cut off low, and brought floods. People still talk about them.

After the rain

With all of that, the light and the smell of the earth after the rain, still warms my heart.

All of that said, the work on the house will resolve most of these issues and help it to work for me. I can't wait for it to be done! I am learning patience...

Until next time

Post script

I blog here, on Instagram and via WordPress to my own website. I write for love and a living and you'll find out more about that here. Content for the first two, and sometimes the last, cross pollinate.

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Original artwork: @artywink

I create graphics using partly my own photographs as well as images available freely available on @hive.blog and Canva.