It may have started raining here again, but the temperatures are still pretty high. I wonder what this means for the later part of the year when it’s supposed to be even hotter…

Well, some of the plants have had a happy revival – the grass being the happiest – but others are still showing the after-effects of the drought that finally broke just a week ago. One of our bittergourd plants is still struggling quite a bit. We went from this in February:

Decent-sized fruits – for a mini bittergourd, that is.

…to this in March:

How horrible is it that fruits dried up like this on the vine during the drought?

And even though the weather has broken, the plant is not extremely healthy and keeps giving up fruits early:

The bittergourds, they keep a-bursting open fast on the vine…

Yes, I believe it’s nature’s way of helping plants to move on to the great compost heap by encouraging them to reproduce first. It goes against my will to give up on a plant that’s still living, but I think this poor plant doesn’t have the energy for a second wind.

Fortunately, we have a second plant that’s not labouring under current conditions as much:

This bittergourd plant has been perking up a little in the slightly cooler weather, so we have higher hopes for it.

The plant has put out bigger, healthier leaves since the weather broke last week, so this one’s definitely a keeper. You win some, you lose some?

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