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What a wonderful surprise... When I was young we lived on a dairy & agriculture farm, meaning we milked cows[for cream & butter], that lead to left-over milk to feed pigs. We grew corn [maze] for Mr Kellogs, sudan for the cows to eat to keep them going in the dry spell & of course we had chooks & grew some veggies. It was a fun life but a bit lonely as my sister & brother were so much older than me so I always longed for company. I remember when I was very young, our windmill run out of water so we had to get a diviner in to find the channel again & drill down for new water - this is what watered the cows & other animals - we survived on rainwater at the house but in bad times we had to drink the bore water too. So it was rather urgent that we find this windmill/diviner & we went for a long drive one Sunday & found them in a paddock living outta their truck & a lean-to & they had a daughter my age... whoopee I has so delighted.
Anyway they came to our place in a couple of weeks when they had finished that job - in the meantime we had to cart water from the local windmill about 7 miles away but I couldn't wait until they could come to our place. I remember having the most wonderful time with someone to play with everyday - they didn't stay with us as they had family near-by & it was so close to Christmas by then but the man would bring his little girl[I can't even remember her name now...] so we could play in the sandpit under our big pepperina trees. They found water on Christmas eve - great celebrations & the new drillhole was all fixed by new year & all the neighbours came over to help move the windmill over to the new hole using tractors & ropes - we sat up on the hill & watched but it heralded the end of the best Christmas holidays I think I ever had as a kid.
These rain lilies remind me of the farm as I brought these little bulbs with me wherever we lived - they will lie dormant in a pot until it actually rains on them & I really thought I had lost them after plating them out in the garden, in this last year with the dry so bad so you can imagine my surprise & pure delight when I went for my walk one morning & there they were to greet me - it took them a day or so for the flowers to bloom but the rain brought them back. It really is strange how somethings will not grow without the rain - you can keep them alive with tap water but the rain bring them into bloom ... pure magic...
Thankful... for the magic of Mother Nature ...