Arrival of the Monsoon

Since the beginning of May the weather has become gradually wetter, cloudier and cooler. It's a welcome relief from the severe heat we experienced during March and April. Some of the Southwest Monsoon moisture made all the way from the Indian ocean to drop its blessings here on the Korat Plateau, making everything green again.

For a while it looked as though we wouldn't be able to get our rice paddies planted because there wasn't enough rain to actually flood them. Without flooding, the rice will grow just fine but so will a variety of robust grasses and weeds which makes the crop hard to manage and harvest.

Then a good heavy rain came along and after that our neighbors arrived promptly to cultivate the muddy soil and to plant seedlings that they already had on hand. Ours are tiny fields by local standards but good for planting a special variety such as black rice

The harvest will belong to those who did the work although they will probably offer us a few bags in exchange for the use of the field.

Now the rice is coming up very well and it's pleasing to see how the land catches and holds the water at the right level for the rice. Any excess flows into our large pond for long term storage.
The farmer in me needed to see the paddy system functioning as it was designed to do.

When we acquired this land, we lacked the means to fill all the paddies for tree planting so we decided to keep this small field for rice production. Although rice monoculture is not ecologically ideal, it does provide a wetland habitat for small fish, frogs, snails, insects and birds so some biological diversity is maintained.

We've been concentrating more, however, on establishing our trees and larger plants, recently starting young banana plants, toddy palms (Borassus flabellifer), jatropha (Jatropha curcas), limes and more mango.

The seasonal return of the monsoon with much more generous rains this year has given us a feeling of deep respect for the resilience of the living earth and the persistence of the natural cycles.

Is industrial activity with all its CO2 emissions really disrupting climate stability? Well, probably it is, but we can't honestly say that we see evidence of that in this part of the world. Perhaps the greenhouse effect is more severe in the polar and temperate regions of the planet.

Nevertheless, it's clear that we humans must learn to change the way we live, adjusting our relationship with the natural processes of life so that our behavior is less exploitative; more friendly and mutually supportive. It doesn't mean giving up anything truly valuable. All the gadgetry of our industrially modified environment may seem valuable and difficult to give up but that's just because we have become habituated to the complex apparatus we have created, dependent upon it and culturally imprinted to believe in its value.

In reality, it contributes little or nothing to our deep peace of mind and over-all well-being.

Illustration of a poem by Tao Yuanming