The Aftermath.

Apparently we received over 80mm of rain yesterday ... there was localised flooding as the downpour coincided with a king tide!  This photo is from our newspaper ... don't you just love the look of sheer enjoyment on their faces!   Of course this whole suburb that forms the background of this photo was pretty much under water ... I'm sure the adults were not having as much fun!

Well that was in town ... I live out of town and in the foothills of one of the surrounding ranges, so my street stayed pretty dry.  The highway was closed so we were unable to get into town but that was open again this afternoon ... so no inconvenience really!

On our property there was actually little damage ... a few eucalyptus branches down ... lots of green ants' nests laying in tatters on the ground after being knocked out of the trees by the wind and rain (can't get broken up about that though!)... some soil carried away in our front yard ... but my hubbie's rather ugly retaining wall did it's job and sent most of the rushing water away from our front yard!

The area that suffers the most damage is our driveway ... as it's on a slope the rocks from the driveway are always carried away during heavy rain and we're left with lots of ruts.

The rocks are carried away down the concrete driveway and end up in not-so-little mounds at the bottom       ...

 

I think I could almost start a rock garden down there at the end of this concrete driveway!!!


Most of the plants have come through .... but I will give it some more time before I'll say positively all have come through.  I've found over the years that some of the drought tolerant plants I grow here because of the mostly dry conditions, suffer terribly during such heavy downpours!

The first bloom on my new Gladiolus callianthus tried desperately to open during the downpour ... it couldn't quite get there, but there are other buds ready to be the next to show off their beauty .. can't wait!
(Sorry the photo's a bit blurry, but I took it during the downpour and couldn't get very close!)

A Day of High Drama in the Bush.

Today we woke up to drumming, driving rain and it continued all day.

Wave after wave of torrential rain squalls rolled in from the ranges and over the foothills lashing our house and property with so much rain that there were little rivers running all through our front yard.

 

The creek which sits at the bottom of our hilly property was a raging torrent today ... it was dry three weeks ago!

The sound of the rushing water just added to the almighty din that pervaded our surrounds ... the rain bucketing down on our corrugated tin roof,

the almighty gusts of wind that ripped through the eucalyptus trees

and the green frogs chorusing loudly!

It's the 'wet'!  Sometimes we are fortunate enough to get decent rain during our summer ... which is our 'wet' season ... and then sometimes we get monsoonal rainfall that reminds us that we are indeed in the tropics!

Below is a link to a video clip I shot today during a bit of a lull in the downpour  - I had to wait for a lull because my camera would have been drenched even on the verandah.  There's no commentary ... I wouldn't have been heard over the din! 

Video:   'Downpour Downunder'

The steady soaking rain .... turns into a torrential summer downpour!

Such a heavy deluge of rain in just two days ...  The creek bed, which lies at the bottom of the hill that our house sits on, is dry almost all year round.  But with the downpour we've had this week, it is filled with rushing water!  I just love waking up to the sound of the creek flowing through the bushland once more!

 

Not many of the wallabies brave the downpour to come into the yard to nibble on the new green grass ... this one is the exception and is obviously made of sterner stuff!

So many of the plants around my place are looking rather beaten as the rain pours down ... but not the Neomarica.  It holds it's head up high and shows such a bright face!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie ... oi, oi, oi! It's our nation's birthday today!

Sitting on the verandah ... rain drumming on the corrugated iron roof ...

....  Wallabies munching on the grass while sheltering from the rain ....

... Kookaburra sitting in an old gum tree, a little damp and disgruntled ....

It's a rainy Australia Day here in north-eastern Oz ... and these words from Dorothea Mackeller's famous poem come to mind:

Core of my heart, my country!                                
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die -
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

A opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.