Just had a healthy dose of rain today and it reminded me of England. You forget what rain is like living here with perpetual blue skies, and normally when it rains it’s a light shower. Not today. It was full on grey, sodden skies, puddles and the lovely patter of water on sill. I miss the rain.

Meterologists had been predicting a light shower and they got it wrong. It’s also strange because the deluge was welcomed in some quarters – fire fighters, some home owners – as it would damped the dry brush and hopefully quell fires, especially considering we’re still in Santa Ana wind season. But in the same breath, because of the fires and the lose earth with no binding and foliage, flash floods and mud slides are a risk. So if you live in a house on the edge of a canyon, if you don’t burn to death you’ll probably be engulfed in a mud slide. You can’t have it all.

But it’s always good to see rain here, life giving, feeding the earth and land and the Southern Californians conspicuous water use habits. I’m always baffled where the water comes from here as it only rains once every few months and we’re told this is the driest year on record. The water is siphoned from Northern California – but I don’t know how this manages to support all the water used. People are hyper cleanly and take at least two showers a day. Everyone has cars, and all the cars are very clean. It takes a lot of water to clean a car. There are a lot of swimming pools in back yards. Etc etc. They like using water but there isn’t enough of it and its getting worse, which is why we are looking West to the Ocean for a solution.