Puddling along

Our daily traffic has created big patches of brown ooze into which gumboots, chickens and hearts sink.

- GREG DIXON

That Noah must have been a panicky sort. If the Bible is to be believed - and who wouldn't believe a revealed text from thousands of years ago? - the Good Lord told him H had decided to wash away a sinful wo with 40 days and 40 nights of rain. W did Nervous Noah do after hearing this extended forecast? He freaked out, and on advice from the man upstairs, built himself an ark.

Lord knows how he would have coped out here on the North Island's east coast in 2023, where it has been raining for what feels like 400 days and 400 nights.

At Lush Places, by the end of June, we had had showers or rain on 97 of 180 days - delivering about a year's rainfall in six months and there will be many more days of it before winter and the spring rains are done.

With the water table now so high, it takes little more than an hour of steady rain for big pools to form around the place. One of our paddocks has even started growing rushes, while our gardens have become watery graves.

Despite this, during a brief pause between downpours, Michele, ever the optimist, planted some celery seedlings. Ever the pessimist, she is resigned to the prospect of them floating away.