Tag: rain
-
All The Places
Three poems by South African poet and clinical psychologist Musawenkosi Khanyile, from his recent collection, All The Places, published by uHlanga Press.
-
The Lightning Way
I would often sit with my grandfather outside on the porch, watching the cloudbursts roll in from the horizon. They would come in thick, dark inky blue clouds heavy with rain over the top of Cochiti mesa; constantly churning and building with energy, as if they sensed the ancient presence of our old village. Grandpa…
-
The Undomesticated Chanterelle
The Cantharellus cibarius, most commonly known as chanterelle, is one of the most celebrated wild edible mushroom in the world. You would think by now that this prized fungus, which can be collected in the hundreds in certain wooded areas, would be commercially cultivated. But it is not. In fact, only twenty edible fungal species…
-
Life in a Time of Plenty, III
Part 3: After Now summer is coming around again. Rain is neither surprise nor burden; a clear sky is nothing more than that. Now is a time of plenty: the reservoirs aren’t full but they’re full enough; gardens grow without assistance; crops fail, or flourish, but farming in Australia has always been difficult. There is…
-
Life in a Time of Plenty, II
Part 2: Deluge When the rain came, it came hard. In hindsight that shouldn’t have surprised anyone: the Australian environment is not gentle. By the time then-Minister for Agriculture Joe Ludwig announced in March 2012 that federal drought assistance was no longer needed in Bundarra and Eurobodalla – the only areas still listed as being…
-
Life in a Time of Plenty, I
Part 1: Drought On New Year’s Day 2007, drought came to Melbourne. Water restrictions, previously moderate, were tightened, and overnight the residents of Australia’s second largest city found themselves in a water crisis: fountains stopped flowing, gardens went unwatered, and almost immediately the city turned brown. Water still came gushing out of the tap as…