Too good to be true

Something very strange seems to be going on in our neck of the woods lately. It all started yesterday when I came back home from helping to mix and lay concrete in the 30 degree plus heat (a long and not so fun story!). I was wandering through the garden when I discovered this big batch of bees just hanging around on the bottom of my hanging basket. You couldn't get an easier place to capture them from if you tried! The strange thing is that the bees don't usually swarm at this time of the year.... and then the same night that they swarmed we started having a large number of earthquakes... in fact we just had yet another one while I was writing this. I have counted at least 8 so far in the last two days and I know there have been more while I have been driving etc. A lot of the area near us is volcanic and I don't know if it is related or not, but it is a little unnerving. I slept with the kids last night just in case the shakes became any bigger and we had to do something more than just sit and hope!
Another strange thing that is happening right now is that we should be in the rainy season, but in fact we are in an incredible drought. I tried to water the garden with the pump tonight, but after about one hour and very little progress I gave up. A lot of the rice farmers are getting very worried as they have no water to fill their rice fields. It could be a difficult year!
As for the bees... I just put them in their new home all by myself. My husband was on strike and so I decided that I may as well give it a go. No problems yet - just have to keep my fingers crossed that they will stay. I really don't feel like hearing "I told you so" in the near future!