Forgive the weird photo, but this a snapshot of the front of our building, taken by leaning over the balcony railing--in the rain--without letting my phone plummet 5 stories to the ground....


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We've been having a very wet and windy week, actually almost two weeks.  After such a dry summer, it feels both good and strange to have this weather.*  I could do without the wind, though the rain is very welcome, and we are so chufffed with our rain-catchment system.  We have been able to pump at least 18,000L (5400 gallons) into the ponds we ( Read more... )

One week and one day later, we have hot water.

There will be a bath for moi this afternoon!

In other watery news, having grown up in a desert climate, I've always said I would never tire of rain. If we settle permanently in Basque country, I may have to revise that statement.  It rains. all. the. time.  Since moving here in mid-March, we have ( Read more... )

 These aren't the ones I had in mind, but since they are what I have, they are what you get. Or rather "it." Only one today to see if I have the hang of this MacBook photo resizing thing...


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I had planned on getting some writing done today. I very much wanted to as it has been a while since I've allowed myself to even think about my stories.  However, pouring rain and constant thunder dictated the wisdom of shutting down the pc.

My consolation prize?

Lying in the hammock on the balcony, listening to the pounding storm and enjoying the ( Read more... )

Since all our other photos are in external hard drive limbo, I had to take a few more. Luckily, rain is not scarce and hard to come by right now in Mayotte.

This is a hibiscus growing just outside our living room window, so I was able to snap a few shots, sheltered from the downpour. There were blue skies over Grande Terre during this rain, ( Read more... )

So, as I explained once several months ago, we live in a dead-end street on the slope of Mount Vigie, and where the tarmac ends, a footpath works it way up a ravine to where there are several bangas (typical Mahorais housing, which are no longer made of mud and straw and bamboo and palm thatch but of corrugated tin). When a heavy rain falls, water ( Read more... )

Ask a rhetorical question, I guess. I could have called this post "Wiped out," "The little piggy finally made it to the market," or "Out with the new in with the old, or the unboundless stupidity of some people."  Let's take those one by one, shall we?

Wiped out:

I'm so freaking tired. I feel like a wet noodle. No, worse. Noodles do not, to the best ( Read more... )

Yet another flower picture. I think I know the name of the plant, but like a word on the tip of the tongue, it won't come to me. This was also taken in the Hell-bourg cemetery. My next pics will be of the rain here in Mayotte and the scarily impressive and dangerous thing that is our street when a hard rain falls. :P


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Poppies![1] I love the delicate poppies that grow wild in the French countryside, especially when they bloom in the thousands, creating a swath of scarlet in a field of gold or green. Imagine my surprise seeing them flourishing in a cemetery on Ile de la Réunion. I guess I shouldn't have found their presence odd though, given the hundreds of ( Read more... )