It's raining, it's pouring...

It's amazing! As I sit here merrily typing away I'm watching the first actual proper rain (rather than a 2 minute shower that doesn't even make the ground damp) to fall in months. I'm sure it won't last, it never does here in Bowen, but at least it means I don't have to wash the car! Unfortunately I'm not sure that the Other Half will be quite as joyous as he was trying to work in the garden today. Hey ho. The reason he was trying to work in our garden today was a matter of some urgency so he'll probably still be plugging away out there attempting to put up some hastily purchased shade cloth around our veggies. I can't remember whether I've mentioned our veggie garden recently but it's doing very well, we've had several bunches of silverbeet (sort of like spinach) survive and generally thrive despite it being the wrong time of year to grow them, our tomato plants are looking spiffing with the best being about a foot high already, and a couple of our bean plants are starting to climb up the wire of the chicken pen. I've planted some peas (for the record cooked peas = little green balls of evil, fresh garden peas from the pod not cooked = delicious) and am waiting with baited breath for them to show their little heads above the soil. My basil is shooting up and my coriander, after a very shaky start, is actually surviving and getting stronger so it's all going well. That was, at least, until we realised that we have 'roos in the back yard. All those of you who do not reside out in the bush here in this hot, dry, country who are at this very minute going 'Oooh, kangaroos! How exciting! How very Australian. How wonderful' I say to you this - yes, that was my immediate thought, followed straight on by 'Oh bugger, the bastards are going to eat all our veggies because they are green in a country that is, at the moment, in the middle of a drought and predominantly brown'* Add to that the possums and the rabbits and we really have a problem. So, shade cloth. 3 feet high around the veggie patch and a lot of crossed fingers and we may get away with it! *There may have been a few more swear words thrown in there but I've edited it for polite company