In Kirsenbosch Gardens, found in the Dell, is Colonel Bird’s bath. Built around 1811 by the Colonel, in the shape of a bird, it collects spring water and allows it to stand and clear. Originally it was piped to his house, but now it feeds the surrounding pools. The clearest water flows from an underground spring (fed by the Table Mountain aquifer) at a rate of 72 litres per minute. An aquifer is an underground layer of permeable rock and sediment that contains groundwater. There are two types: unconfined and confined. A confined aquifer is when the permeable layer that holds the water lies between layers of impermeable rock and clay. If these other layers put enough positive pressure on the water, you get an artesian well = a free flowing well of water that comes from underground without needing to be pumped. Colonel Bird’s bath appears to be one. Apparently the best example in South Africa is the Uitenhage Artesian Basin that draws 44 litres per second (2640 litres per minute) and supplies water to Uitenhage and surrounding citrus farms. An artesian well can dry up, depending on its position, but can continue to flow for multiple decades. Do the following texts not describe God to be like an artesian well – a relentless well of free flowing life and love: John 4:13-14               “Jesus replied that people soon became thirsty again after drinking this water. “But the water I give them,” he said, “becomes a perpetual spring within them, watering them forever with eternal life.” (LB) Jeremiah 2:13             “For my people have done two evil things: They have forsaken me, the Fountain of living waters; and they have built for themselves broken cisterns that can’t hold water!” (LB)