I do try to not go on too much about the drought but there's no denying we are in the midst of one. Let's hope rain comes soon.
The land is parched and so many people who rely on rainwater for their household water are having to buy tanker loads of water at some considerable expense. My water tank has been desperately low but I've been managing by being thrifty with it. (Can you be thrifty with water. I'm sure there's a better word.) I have a bucket for the kitchen sink where I catch the water as I wait for it to run hot and use that whenever cold water will do the job at hand. Another bucket is in the shower and that gets carried to the washing machine and I don't do a load of washing until I have enough for a load. I got really cross with myself yesterday when I spilt coffee on a white table cloth, firstly for being clumsy, then for having a white cloth on the table in the first place when there is a water shortage - I should know better.
Any water that can be recycled is. I follow the "if it's yellow let it mellow" rule for the toilet and have a brick in cistern so it uses less water than normal. I could go on but it's pretty boring. And, anyway, I still had to top up my water tank when I had visitors.
I can carry once or twice used water to suffering plants in the garden but there's no way of helping the trees in the forest and they are suffering, too. I took my visitors for a little walk in the A H Reed Memorial Park in Whangarei which is usually so lush and green and was shocked at how dry it looked. I guess I see our forest so often I hadn't noticed the gradual changes so much.
We did the canopy walk and it was sad to note the barest little trickly of water in the stream you overlook from the walkway.
Even the tree ferns looked to be a slightly faded shade of green.
The dry farm paddocks and even drier hills of our neighbour's sheep farm.
But, on the positive side, the dry weather means the road construction company has been able to work uninterrupted on the access road to the lodge. They are making good progress for which I am truly grateful.