Just Singing in the Rain

I'm singing in the rain
Just singing in the rain
What a glorious feelin'
I'm happy again

Finally, after breaking yet another weather record, this time for the longest period without rain ever in the Netherlands (which stands now at a whopping 45 days), it rained!!!!

Last night I woke up because of a strange noise I heard, it was the long awaited rain that came pouring down in the night. I never thought I could ever be happy because of rainfall. Usually it's something that's guaranteed to make me grumpy as it rains quite a lot here. We have roughly the same weather as in England, so quite mild but with lots and lots of rain.

My garden needed rain. Just look at the grass and see how brown and dry it is, and it's only the beginning of May.
The earth was so dry that large cracks appeared, and this is heavy clay so normally quite wet.
Because rain was forecast, the human part of the Bliss team went out and bought another rain butt and now we have 3. We want to save more rainwater in case there is another long period without rain. Which is entirely possible of course, as we are just into spring and summer is yet to come. Last year we had the warmest July in over 300 years and all the plants in pots needed to be watered at least twice a day. There's no way of knowing if it will be as hot and dry again this summer too.

On Sunday the new rain barrel was installed next to the garden cottage so the rain, that falls on that roof, will no longer disappear into the ground, but will be stored in the rain barrel.

The rain barrel has a pedestal, just like the one in the ornamental kitchen garden, so its tap is placed high enough to put a watering can under. Very handy!
The under-gardener cut a hole in the lid of the rain barrel, cut the drain pipe to size, plugged the tap in and that was that.
All we had to do now was wait for rain.

And while we waited for rain, we did a lot of work in the garden this weekend, that had to be done before the rain came. Of course all work and no play will make even the Bliss team rather dull, so there was time for fun: here's Pippa rolling on the lawn.
And games: Surprise has caught a mouse.
And discoveries, like this one, the beautiful rosa Calypso in flower for the first time this year. It's such a lovely rose; all strawberries and cream in colour and with a wonderful sweet scent.

And yet another discovery, this time in the kitchen garden, my new Clematis, Rouge Cardinal, which looks great. I'm not too keen on red but this is a rich burgundy red that I really like.
I'll leave you with a picture of my garden I took 5 minutes ago of the little seating area that is not only being showered with rain but with blossom petals as well. Pretty, isn't it?

It is not raining rain to me
It's raining violets.
Robert Loveman 1864-1923