Wonderful Wacky Weather = Beautiful Blooming Garden

When I was young I learnt the seasons in the order of ‘Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter’.

However, the past couple of weeks we went Winter, Spring, Winter, Summer. Last week we went from 32 degrees maximum one day to 17 degrees the next day and cold winds and 1 degree the next morning! And now we are back up to days in the 30s. We normally get a ‘winter flashback’ in September but not normally so cold or so early!

When we first arrived in Botswana we were told that there are two seasons not four, the dry season and the wet season and that the wet season was from early rains normally late September, with then a gap till December from when it rains a lot till end March. The Botswana Meteorology Dept data has the wet season from October and is finished in March.

However, the first year we were here, there were such constant heavy rains in April we couldn’t get clothes dry hanging them outside. Now, this year, we got our first heavy rain in August (with even some other rain in July) and we have already had a couple of heavy thunder/rain-storms, and we have hardly nudged the start of September….and I hear thunder in the distance again as I write just now.

The weather certainly feels a bit wacky…..but the garden thinks its wonderful. 

Sometimes we can be told that ‘different’ means doom and disaster. But life can feel ‘whacky’, ‘weird’ or unusual, odd, awkward, or unexpected, yet actually be the means of a delightful gift. Our garden is certainly a reminder that what might appear wacky at first, might actually be God's wonderful gift and blessing.

Our wacky wonderful weather means the garden that we ‘moved’ and re-planted over the past few months, is already blooming and happy.  The plants have loved the almost ‘regular' rainwater, along with the cloudy days followed by sunshine. Our garden is filling with colour, like happy faces of joy speckled around the yard.

Here are some ‘joy spot' glimpses from Bulbine, to roses, to jasmine and plum tree blossom - reminders that weird and unexpected doesn’t have to mean problematic…..but can be delightful!