It's official - New Zealand is officially in a drought

Click on picture to enlarge it for a better visual

 New Zealand has officially been declared as being in a drought. The above photo taken by satellite shows New Zealand in March 2012 (left) and again March 2013 (right). Most of the North Island has had no significant rain since well before Christmas. 

Cyclone Sandy is hopefully going to rain down on New Zealand over this weekend, but here on the east coast of the North Island forecast rain often fails to materialise.

Even my drought tolerant plants are keeling over. My lawn is brown and patchy. The hills are brown. The fields are brown. Beneath the dried brown grass is dry dirt.
Farm stock are being slaughtered because feed is so expensive. This means that meat prices will rise dramatically.

Vegetable prices are going up because of the water costs to irrigate them and because so many crops are failing.

Whoever would have thought we would be praying for a cyclone to head our way?



 

Well, it has been a long time since my last post, for which I am very ashamed. However it has been a very busy time with working full time and having an overseas visitor to stay. That was fun, if exhausting. By the time he left it really did feel as though a great deal of my time was taken up with thinking about meals, preparing meals, cleaning up after meals, and washing dishes after meals. 

Anyhoo, I have been doing bits and pieces around the house. I finally got around to hanging some artwork, did a bit of re-arranging, and had to change some of my furniture to fit the smaller living room. This is what it looks like now - but I still have more ideas on this room and the rest of the house..... aren't dog beds unsightly?