At the Flat

Mahana turned 3 last week and Tony and Mary bought her a puppy, although Chris is also enjoying it very much. The puppy's name is Storm. This is as well as 4 cats, Barty the old dog, and a pigeon in a cage which is right outside our bedroom window now.

While you are taking pity on the puppy, take note of the big pile of gravel covered with an old carpet in the background. This arrived at about 10 one night - odd. Tony had intended it to be dumped on the roadside, but he was asleep when it arrived so the men dumped it in front of our flat, partially burying the strip of garden and our path. Tony has since spread a lot of it around the parking area but a lot remains, some of which will be used by his builders.

Martyn decided at the weekend, even though it was hot, to rescue the plants in the garden, split some of them up and spread them out all the way along by the path. He also tidied up the edge of the pile so it can't just overflow back into the garden. He also finally got the old stump of a pawpaw tree out that was growing near the tank, and levelled the pavers.

Great work! The egg carton has nothing to do with the garden, Martyn just collected it from Tony while chatting, so we can pass it on to someone at International Church who keeps chickens and sells the eggs.

 It is well and truly dry season now. This is the road to our flat taken this morning. Everything is dusty - we sweep quite a pile of it off our floor every few days and we have given up on mopping. The big holes in the road still have not been filled in, but at least there are some piles of gravel to be put into them. It will all wash out again unless the ground is levelled and it's all packed down properly though.

This is what it looked like back in March. Wet season is due to start again next month.