The good news - IT'S RAINING!!!!!! OK, it may not be much to you Brits but when your reservoir has been near 50ft below normal, it's darn good news. On the current projections Lake Travis isn't going to make it up to the point where I can get the dinghy out this Summer so I'll be towing it to one of the Lakes in the next river basin, but it's a step forwards.

Meantime, our season is about inverted from HIDDY's - we have most of the beans etc. in the ground, and the tomato plants waiting on the final piece of the construction project that is the backyard. Raspberries are sprouting, and the demented mange tout (snow peas) have yielded about 5 pounds over the last two weeks - it's completely the wrong time of year but what the heck, we'll take them. Oh, and we'll likely get our first ever broad (fava) beans in the next couple of weeks.

So rain is a good thing after all.