dry earth

Rain prayers

Recently some nepalese farmers thought of an ingenious way of appeasing the rain god who has refrained from blessing the parched land. The farmers in a central Nepalese village arranged a frog marriage to please the rain god so that the eight-month-long drought could come to an end. As the croak of frogs marks the arrival of the monsoon, residents of Gairi village in Dolakha district conducted a wedding of frogs as per Hindu rituals before hundreds of onlookers. The villagers brought a male frog from the Siple stream and a female frog from the Chukepani stream, according to the Kathmandu Post. The amphibians were married in a ceremony held on a plate at the Nageshwori Kalikasthan temple in the presence of seven priests. One of the locals said that five years ago such a ceremony had brought heavy rain. A local woman said that there was a storm and a brief drizzle after the marriage ceremony. But clearly, that wasn’t enough.

hick town

Going, going gone

One whole village with 22 cottages, a cricket club, a blacksmith’s and a manor house has been put up for sale in the United Kingdom. The idyllic Linkenholt, near Andover in Hampshire, which has 1,500 acres of farmland and 450 acres of woodland, is worth £25 million. A 12th century village church, which does not belong to the seller, the Herbert and Peter Blagrave Charitable Trust, is the only thing that has been spared from being put on sale.