Rain welcome!

 

It rained gently on and off most of the day yesterday over our gardens. The earth has breathed a sigh of relief, but I'm afraid it was not enough to make a huge difference. Certainly didn't refill our pond or water butts. 

Curiously, Newport Furnace reported only 0.1 mm of rain for June through yesterday so the conditions were very localized. Belmullet and Clairmorris reported more like 17 mm of rain, which I think was far more than what we saw. People in the gardening group were reporting heavy downpours in Limerick and hardly anything in Donegal and Dublin. 

But everything is growing rapidly, yet the grapes have not yet bloomed. I walked through lifting a few vines that had fallen off the supports. It's very difficult for me as they are too high for me to be able to work on them comfortably at my height. 

It's now warm and humid with gentle offshore breeze and set to continue this way for at least a week. It will be back to watering. Our friends Philip and Lynda who arrived by boat yesterday from England, departed today heading North. They hadn't been here in 5 years and there was much to see. They were suitably impressed. 

A kiwi in the vineyard