Gardening in Dubai in the rain.

3 weeks of rain glorious rain here in Dubai and I'm loving it.

 There was a bit of damage at our local car park after high winds and sadly numerous car accidents

 I've been able to wear my favourite purple croc boots and my supermarket, leopard print boots bought in South Africa.

 I was given some organic seeds to sew a few months back, but I have absolutely no idea what these are, so I've planted them in rows, thinking potatoes?????

 I spent over an hour tying up all the plants after heavy winds, my back was killing me.

 I'm hoping to see a bit more life in the garden over the next few weeks, my tomato plants are producing fruit at 1-2 per week and the strawberries which are growing better are very bitter.

 There has also been some regrowth from last year, plants I thought I'd removed but they'd obviously seeded, I'm happy where they are though.

 The nasturtium is growing well, I managed to get it to flower last year, lets hope it does again this year.

 You've probably worked out by now that my gardening is pot luck, I have no idea what these bulbs are, but they're growing.

 The are more seedlings to be planted out, some are sunflowers, which I put into bigger pots.

 These two seeds trays have yielded nothing for the past few weeks, I moved the trays indoors and seedlings started to sprout within 36 hours. Sweet peas need a constant temperature to germinate, I recall now that last year they did the same thing.

Winter in South Africa

The sun still shines, the sky is blue and I can’t remember the last time it rained here, certainly not since I returned from my trip to the UK on May 2^nd and it probably won’t *rain again now till September, it's very dusty and everything is brown.

              

But don’t be fooled by the clear blue skies, we are scraping ice off the car first thing in the morning. Day time temps are still in the high teens and will probably stay like that for the whole of winter but after the sun sets and before it rises, temps are currently around 2-5c and we’re just waiting for the zero and below to kick in and when it does, boy is it even colder.

Family and friends who have visited in the winter from the UK are wearing summer gear in the day as they say it’s so warm compared to a UK summer. I start my day off with as many layers as I can manage and still be able to move.

It snowed in Pretoria in 2012, the 1st time since 1963. Some of the Malls have ice rinks.

By mid morning I’ve removed the scarf, gloves and maybe the fleece from underneath my coat, I may regret wearing tights with my jeans and boots, but that moment passes quickly.

The sun sets around 5.30pm within the hour I’ve had my bath and I’m on the sofa in my fleece pjs, blanket and hot water bottle and feet off the cold tiled floor. By 8pm we’re in bed with the electric blanket on, watching TV, but then we fall asleep early and wake early, before the sun rises at 6am, not wanting to get up, but as soon as it does, it’s straight outside to drink our tea and coffee under the sun where it is nice and warm.

*since scheduling this post there was a hail storm and torrential rain over the weekend