These past couple of months have seen us splish and splash our way through the long rainy season in Kenya.
Here in our magical spot of Kilifi, the rains have breathed new life into the land, leaving everything looking lush and green as ever. Most of the plants are absolutely thriving, with new sprouts of Moringa in our banda courtyards and lots of Bamboo shooting up and around our communal bathrooms. Mighty trees such as the Mbamba Kofi, Neem and African Cedar remain stoic and aloof despite the relentless rains, absolutely nothing can faze these big boys!
The passion vines have allegedly given birth to Passion fruits, we say ‘allegedly’ because the only evidence we have seen of this phenomenon is the half-eaten fruit skins picked as clean as can be and discarded outside on the ground in the early mornings. We fear that we may never get a taste of any of these delicious fruits because of the culprits, the Ninja Vervet Monkey land lords who graciously allow us to live amongst them but have declared an official ‘No Go’ on sharing of this Passion fruit bounty! A fight we surrendered to before it even begun, we simply do not dare to compete with such nimble ninja competitors in the delicate art of passion picking.
Inside the food forest, a few of the terraces failed to withstand the pounding rains and simply disappeared, washed away into oblivion. The discovery was made one morning by our horticulturist, a visibly shaken Jackson who hurriedly called an emergency meeting which saw us all spend quite a bit of time hunched under a mango tree, pens on notebooks and sticks scribbling in the soil furiously trying to decipher a solution. We finally dispatched a raiding party to the seedling nursery and successfully made off with more Vetiva grass which we re-planted along the newly re-done terraces to hold the soil and prevent further erosion, so far so good and fingers crossed it continues to do the trick.
We sadly did have a few casualties during the rains which saw us lose a few potatoes out there during the raging battle of the food forest. Sweet potatoes whose only crime was not being able to swim and rather took on too much water for their own good. Our compost pit salutes their spud bravery and sacrifice, nothing will go to waste!
At the other side of the compound, it really is proving to be ‘fine weather for Ducks’ at the Duck house! All day, every day they dance and drink, gleefully splashing around their webbed feet and have even been seen coming out for the occasional sunbathing session when the skies are clear. The Chickens don’t seem bothered by the rain either and all forty-four of them continue to steadily supply our Kitchen with freshly laid free range eggs every morning. The free-range solitary guinea fowl that has made its home with us seems extremely happy scratching up of the compound, hunting beetles, grasshoppers and crickets.
On the room front we did have minor leaking incident under the pounding pressure of the rain with our thatched “makuti” roofing taking a beating during a rather heavy rain storm, but quick repairs were undertaken by our maintenance crew. We caught a lucky break two months ago when we were inspired to re-do majority of our roofing in anticipation for this rainy season. These traditional makuti roofs work extremely well with our earthen walls in keeping the rooms at cool temperatures. They also blend in well with nature and are easily biodegradable after use.
Thanks to the rains, the land is green, the flowers will soon come out in full bloom, the mangoes will soon ripen and we are anticipating an abundant harvest that our tyrant Ninja Monkey Landlords might even soften up and consider sharing.
Until then, you are welcome to come down to Kilifi and experience this beauty with us!
Written By:
Kevin M.