Rain!

This is going to be a photo post a bit. For those that don't know, Australia's in the middle of a crazy drought, especially in my state (South Australia). We haven't really had rain at all in two months!

So imagine how cool it is to see this:

That's my front yard - see, no grass, nothing green except native trees ('cause native trees don't care whether they get watered or not). Rain is good. I love the grey sky, I just wish I could have captured the 'wet'-ness more. If I had a comparison photo it might be more obvious - that was so dry before, it's incredible.


Here's from my back door. You can see the difference where the verandah isn't. The thing in a pot is a geranium (which also doesn't care much about water), the green stuff that's still alive is a weed that refuses to die, and the trees are a lemon and mandarin tree which we've been watering by hand to keep alive (no other forms of watering are permitted). The tank up the hill we used to drink from, until it went way too rusty and we built a new one. I wouldn't be wanting to try drinking from there now! Next to it is the other house on our property, where I lived until we realised that house was falling down around our ears as my great-grandparents hadn't thought that putting foundations in was important - building on clay! It was cheaper just to build a new house, so we keep stuff up there now. Nice big shed.

And this is something else altogether: my sister's icon. She was looking for things to make sure it stayed upright, so picked candles! I found that wonderfully poetic.


Again, something completely different - this made me smile:


Teehee. Tonight, being Annunciation, we are eating fish and chips. 'Cause we can. Whenever a major feast and a fast coincide, the compromise is that we get to eat fish. I might not be following the strict fast anymore, but I'm eating fish in honour of the feast.

To Thee, the Champion Leader, we Thy servants dedicate a feast of victory and of thanksgiving as ones rescued out of sufferings, O Theotokos: but as Thou art one with might which is invincible, from all dangers that can be do Thou deliver us, that we may cry to Thee: Rejoice, Thou Bride Unwedded!
- from the Akathist hymn, also the kontakion (hymn) for the feast of the Annunciation

(I am rather fond of that hymn, actually. Friday is Akathist night, yay!)