Water Water Everywhere

It is winter and the temperatures have dropped, the lowest being 14*c (okay, okay I understand that this isn't your idea of cold weather, but for us people of the Sun, this is the closest to freezing temperatures). To make things worse it has started to rain once again. It's been raining for the last four days without letting up. Winter rains can be time of testing, illnesses of all kinds abound. Today the sun escaped through the clouds for a just few minutes and it was like a slice of Heaven here on Earth.

After having caught a bug and struggling with upper respiratory infection for the last six days even some slight warmth from the sun was so welcome. I decided to go up to my terrace garden and there I was sad to see my beautiful (Clerodendrum wallichii, commonly called Wallich's glory-bower or chandelier plant) in such a sad shape, beaten down by rain. I had to straighten the support and tie the plant as best as I could. Well that is life. Get up and move on. I took this picture above after the next rain had washed off the dirt off the flowers. It looks like there are more bulbs hanging down there in this picture.

It seemed liked those few minutes of sunny skies were not just special for me but my fellow creatures as well. This medium sized butterfly sitting on a bush catching the rays of the sun was pretty sight to see.

This little guy, (actually guys/gals there were so many of them were all over the garden) Talicada nyseus or the red Pierrots are quite common here. These look prettier when they close their wings, but today they were more bent on warming up their wings for flight. I love the image of the butterfly casting its shadow on the piece of wood that had fallen over the waterlily tub and decided to use it as the thumb nail image.

The carpenter bees were also out and sunning themselves on the leaves. These guys have destroyed all the wooden supports I had erected in my garden by drilling into them. That's a story for another day.

Weeds have grown all over the place in the last few days. I founds grass flowers strung with beads of water in a couple of places. I tried to take pictures of these as best as I could without disturbing the droplets.

Bougainvilleas are the only ones which don't seem to mind the rain, there is not much flower drop right now but if this rainy weather continues the flowering season will soon come to an end.

The roses have stopped blooming and so have the moss roses. Without sunshine there is the fear of these moss roses rotting away. I had to shake out water collected in so many of my succulents to ensure that there is no rotting from the top, but there is only so much you can do. Look at the amount of water in this one.

Not rain drops anymore, its like plant cups overflowing with rain water. These soft plants are taking it all bravely.

These crevices between the leaves is where the rots start if neglected. The pups are at the greatest danger now.

I could only stand there for a short time before it started to rain all over again. We have more rain predicted for the next few days because of yet another cyclone.

I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that we will get some sunny weather soon. This cold clammy weather isn't doing much for my heath. I am missing my walk in the park because of the rains. Wishing on the starless skies for sunny weather tomorrow.

Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful day.