The Mysterious Case of the Saturated Table

Another satifying couple of weeks in the garden. Brilliant sunshine today, gloriously warm weather and barely a cloud in the sky. It's been nearly a week since wet weather and today we put the sprinklers on. The fun thing about the first artificial rain of the season is the running around fixing up blocked and broken sprinklers.

The vegetables are loving this warm weather. The carrots are just starting to poke their heads above ground. We've never had much luck with carrots, so here's hoping. Other than the daily cursory weed and tidy I now have to sit back and let the veggies do their thing. I am still persevering with some less common seeds, but no luck so far.

The newest addition to the garden - 2 curved garden beds between the house and Maru are now finished. We've planted them out with dwarf buddleias so it seemed fitting to name the two guardians Budleigh and Salterton after my favourite village in England. (Bognor Regis is my second favourite.)

Budleigh smiles up at us as we saunter down the garden and Salterton contemplates the view as we kick back in Maru. The mini golf course is being resurrected and they will be centre stage in future golf tournaments. We also have set aside a croquet area that will need a lot of TLC if we ever take croquet seriously.

Animal life abounds. Nests have been built. We have at least 2 fish in the pond that haven't fallen prey to fish eating birds. Two should be enough to restock and we have put more 'safe house' tunnels into the pond. Hopefully history wont repeat and baby fish will leave our water plants alone. Trying hard to get a balance here! The frogs' chorus in the pond is deathening. We have identified 4 different calls (erky-perky, eek-eek-eek, Blop! and BURP!) and I saw my first froglet! The first blue tongue for the season has put in an appearance and it was a magnificent specimen.

By far the most bizarre thing to happen in the garden this week was the daily saturation of the table and part of the sofa in Maru.

Rain can pour into Maru as it is very open to the elements, so puddling is not unusual, but this was a flood. We had just put up wind chimes to deter the hawk, shag and heron from perching on the Barong's head. The very next morning the table was under water.......aha the shag was using the table in place of the Barong to rest after it pillaged the pond. Off we go to Bunnings to buy netting and a curtain rod to bird proof Maru - not a pretty look but we were going to work on it.

Next morning, table soaked again. We channeled Holmes and Watson, Lindsay more Holmes than me, noting the lack of bird poo and feathers. We racked our brains for senarious that fit the scene. Could it be a stray sprinkler? Holmes to the tap and Watson on the alert for evidence. Up came a gyser to rival Pohutu, Rotorua, from the corner of Maru across in an arc to the table. The sprinkler that comes on every evening had lost its spray and had been soaking Maru nightly for a week.......elementary indeed! Netting comes down, totally unnecessary....doh!

Life is never dull here.