Today I woke to the sound of rain. We have a balcony off our bedroom that has a laser light roof. The rain steadily falling against it resembles the old tin roof homes I grew up in. The sound of rain is one of my favourite sounds in the world. 

It is right up there with the sound of the ocean, the ‘mopoke’ call at my grans during the night, the chattering of magpies in the backyard in winter, the sounds of the terrible trio’s giggles. 

This rain is awesome-  this rain we are receiving is answering a million desperate prayers. How amazing that maybe, just maybe, we won’t be in for another year of drought. (please keep falling!!)

BUT to be totally honest for the last six weeks the pitter patter sound on the laser light has sent my anxiety ratcheting  through the roof.

You see once upon a time Kirstin and Mac dreamed of renovating their home. They dreamed of a large area in the backyard where they could eat out on long summer evenings, an area where the terrible trio could play, and scoot and learn to ride. They dreamed of good friends, bbq’s and fire pits.

This spring, with the long dry summer looming in front of us, I said to Mac – “we should do the backyard now. we are in a drought, there is no rain forecast any time soon, so let’s go for it.”

So we did. And things just fell into place and with in a week  we had a massive area carved out of the red clay in our back yard. Every time I looked outside I smiled. Happy that the dream was coming together. And if we were lucky we would have Christmas dinner out there.

But just like Murphy’s law with in two days of our massive excavation we had a torrential downpour.  Something ridiculous like 30 ml of rain in a couple of hours fell that day.  And our backyard quickly turned into a red clay nightmare. 

Red Clay. 

I remember as a kid my mother going banana’s about the red clay being tracked through the  house and onto the carpet from our shoes. As a kid I never really thought about it except for the total inconvenience of having to take off my shoes to grab something and put them back on to go outside again.

I totally get it now.

Red Clay. It is every where. It stains everything. Our beautiful black and gold Alsatian is now a constant black and read mess. (remember that joke – what is black and white and red all over? Baxter is now the answer!!)

And this beautiful life saving rain has for six weeks caused dread and fear every time I’ve heard it. Dread for having to deal with the mess AGAIN, and fear that the untethered wall would crumble under the weight of all the dirt and water on it. Maybe not a big deal in the over all picture, but at this time of the year, with the kids, the dog and the renovations, with everything else going on…

This morning I woke to the sound of rain on our balcony roof and immediately thought what do I need to worry about now? But in the last two weeks, we’ve had the concrete slab poured and the drainage organised and the retaining wall started.

This morning I woke to the sound of rain, and for the first time in six weeks I relaxed and listened to one of my favourite sounds in the world.

And it is too wet to go outside to take a quick peek to share with you.. So you will just have to wait for the final update!

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