The rainy season is here

One major difference between Japan and New Zealand is the weather. Spring, autumn and winter are pretty similar, but summer is another story. Right now we are just at the beginning of summer and that means the "rainy season". It is now that I am thankful that I spent the extra hours digging the trenches in my garden as it not only means that the garden doesn't turn into a complete bog patch, but it also means that the children have a fun place to splash around in their gumboots. It has been raining solidly for 2 days now (or maybe it is three, I am beginning to lose count) and with the rain the weeds are appearing in large numbers along with the frogs and crabs. I can't count how many times I've been bitten by a crab as I go to pull out a weed this year!

As much as I hate the rain it is an essential thing for the Japanese rice farmer, which is what my husband's father predominantely is. The rain signals the time to start planting the rice seeds and unfortunately for me that means "MOVING TIME". I have had to evacuate my tunnel house so the rice seedlings can be put in there until June, when they will be planted out into the fields. So now wherever you look around the outside of our house you will see trays full of seedlings. Any little piece of shelter is being used to keep them from being directly drowned by the continuous rain. Tom took 5 trays to the local market today to sell and hopefully, if the rain stops long enough, I will be able to plant some more this afternoon. I'm not holding my breath!

Some of the many trays of seedlings.

On a more positive note, the rainy season also brings on the growth of many plants (if they can fight their way through the weeds). The children and I went on our first "wild strawberry" expedition on Monday and the artichokes are popping their heads up along with lupins, poppies and of course more chamomile......