Rain!

Being an english girl I never thought I would be so excited about rain! But we haven't had any rain since about mid April, although I've completely lost track. The winter here is as dry as a bone, and the whole landscape turns depressingly brown. The earth becomes dust and with a winter wind it's impossible to keep things clean.

So over the last few weeks as the weather has warmed up we have begun eagerly expecting the rain. We have had a few false alarms with big clouds building up, the weather becoming very sweaty only to find it all disappears again. Last week we even saw a storm over the mountains, but it was so far away in the Drakensburg that we couldn't even hear the thunder.

Then yesterday, after a beautiful morning, over the course of the afternoon the day became ominously dark and finally at around 5pm we got our storm. I cannot describe the smell of the first rains. I've heard other people say how amazing it is but I really didn't realise that it's so awesome. The smell of all the dust dampening down, and the earth coming back to life. It was almost worth all the months without rain....almost.