Gardening’s not so bad after all

With S (the male one) away during dry season, there’s no one to water the garden except me. Yesterday I watered, which was rather relaxing, and today I went one step further and actually started doing some gardening, which I don’t think I’ve ever done before.

It was just pulling a few dead leaves off trees and clearing out an overgrown area, but still, more than I’ve ever done before — nesting instinct gone wild? A lot of these tropical plants it seems just kind of sit on the earth rather than grow from it, surviving on air and the occasional splash of monsoon rain or hosewater. I think I realised this after I’d ripped about six of them off their delicate roots.

I also watered into a hole that S had told me he’d watered into for 10 minutes without hitting the bottom. I thought I’d give it a go too (and prepared to jump into the deep end of the pool if a snake slithered out) but gave up after five minutes (the groundwater is running low, it seems — we’re losing pressure in the shower, hope it rains again soon). I kept hosing the orchids nearby and suddenly movement caught my eye. It was a toad! Then another one. And another. And lucky last! A toad family that likes to burrow!

So still on the water issue, a handyman showed up unexpectedly at 7am yesterday after I told the landlady a few weeks ago that we wanted to get the roof fixed on one bit of the house — a kind of almost outdoor but made indoor area. I tried to explain that it wasn’t really leaking in one spot, it was just running down the walls in a few areas when it actually rains (which is some time ago now). Out the front of the house, a sign of the problem is mould showing on the nice white-painted eaves. This (indoor area) is where we want to put our new super-duper-baby-washing machine (for baby nappies not baby), so we want to make sure it’s safe first as I’m worried the water could mess with the electrical stuff.

The handyman came back in 20 minutes and cleared leaves off the roof, moved a few bits of tile around (this seemed to be a home-done renovation initially). Then he whipped out a tin of white paint and painted over the mould out the front. Gee, that should do the trick! Think we’ll hold off on the washing machine until it actually starts raining again and we can check the leaking’s stopped.