There is nothing to match a Matabele's happiness during a good rainy season!

Matabeleland goes into crisis mode when there is not enough rain but it also goes into a tizzy when there is too much rain. The vibrant bougainvillea take on that cute, bemused look as though they are peeping out from under their damp demure fringes, raindrops festooning their brilliant, cyclamen pink petals.

The petunias have a distinct look of distaste on their pretty faces, their bonnets are dripping and despondent, and the roses have their ears laid flat back like cats in a downpour!!

And it does not matter how much water one pours on one's garden in the summer, nothing make the difference that the rain does.

But the slugs and snails !!! I have never seen such gigantic mollusks making their way determinedly towards my coleus, my aggies and my clivia!! I am exhausted with having to wake up at 4 am before the Heuglins Robins are awake, in an effort to collect the deceased snails before the birds get to them!!

The millipedes are out in full force, also munching their way through the garden, but I always feel it necessary to forgive the millipedes somehow!!

The lawns are turning yellow with the lack of sunshine and the deprivation to the soil. They are taking absolutely no notice of the nitrates being brought in by the rain....

Even walking in the rain is a thrill, watching the illegal mealies grow inch by inch on the green belts, watching the late Jacaranda trees bloom, admiring the giant kigelia pods growing furiously on the sausage tree. The roads under there street lights are alive with industry as the flying ants pour out of their nests in their multitudinous millions, and the predators wait nearby licking their lips in glee.

Frogs and toads come a-hopping night and day, morning brings the hungry insect eating birds, and many folk are found nearby collecting the fat, juicy, protein-filled termites, once their wings have been discarded.

The ground is totally waterlogged and the talk in town returns constantly to the possible positive inflow into our horrifyingly low water supply dams.

Photos abound on Facebook of the Matsheumhlope in full flood, last year some brave Wags even canoed the river at this time of the year!!

The Save River has been bank to bank for some time, pictures are shown of river water lapping the famous old bridge, the highest level since 1980 I believe, and we pray that the foundations can withstand the sort of hammering the Birchenough Bridge is receiving right now.