Yes, you may have seen it on the news – the Mediterranean basin is getting a right soaking.
After a summer and autumn of on/off heatwaves and plenty of anguished looking agricultural folk and gardeners, as the soil became more and more parched, mother nature delivered late rain in July and August and now she gives us plenty of the wet stuff again, accompanied by spectacular thunder and lightning displays – and the odd, brief, electricity/telephone/internet cut.
I hope, at least, that it is « the right kind of rain » to refill the huge underground water aquifer that lays beneath this part of Languedoc and serves the region with drinking water and water for commercial use, as well as being a very important part of the ecosystem. Long may it be protected from mega-dump proposals!
I guess we all must have done a rain dance too many, because some of said folk are now anxiously eyeing over-flowing river banks and fragile sand spits that have been once again battered by the waves into virtual non-existence. The old car park at Les Aresquiers beach is now a distant memory – and this year’s effort at a pebble dune has been quickly flattened.
Apart from the odd soggy corner, we are benefitting from good drainage and look on it as helping the young plants in the vines and garden. We have plenty of other tasks to do, when we can’t be in the vineyard.
For those who find themselves already submerged – we wish them courage and the best of luck for a speedy recovery and subsidence of the waters.