Australia’s being hit by (yet) a(nother) force of nature. While the bushfires still tear through great swathes of land, a tropical cyclone makes landfall, quickly turns into a low, but does not go away. It takes it’s time moving down nearly the full length of the continent (an almost unprecedented event and you have to go back 50 years to find something similar) dumping tons of water along the way. In my back garden we got 14o mms (5 1/2 inches) yesterday bringing the 2 day total to about 170 mm (6 1/2 in) and it’s still raining (though just a drizzle).
My chickens spent the entire day under my house (I took pity on them and moved a food container under there so they didn’t have to go out and get soaked) and my bees stayed in their hives.
High winds were predicted but didn’t eventuate – at least not in my little patch of the world. I feel guilty in saying the rain’s been wonderful for my yard – the summer has been brutally dry with record high temperatures and, though I can water the vegetables, the earth has dried out. I worried for all my trees and the foundation of my house.
Then came this blessed rain. There was a lot of it but it built slowly, stayed steady and you could almost watch the ground drinking it in with pleasure. Many fellow Aussies have lost their homes, some their lives, and here’s it’s like an answer to a prayer. Mother Nature sure can be both heartless and fickle all the while being a wonderful provider.
Laura Rittenhouse's Gardening Journal 
Glad you and yours are staying safe! That’s a crazy amount of rain!!! (and this is coming from constantly raining Oregon)
Glad you are OK, I really feel for those people who lost their homes only two years ago and are now going through it all again!
I hate watching the news when they interview someone who has just moved back after rebuilding from the last flood to watch it all be innundated again. How hard would that be?
glad you are ok. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Just around the corner a tree fell into a block of flats – things like that happen so indiscriminately it’s scary!
yes it must be, you be careful! xx
You are so right about the weather being fickle. Last Friday i was saying “Yay. We badly need rain” By Saturday I was saying please stop. We had 450mm here on the western outskirts of Brisbane. I’m glad Sydney missed the wind.
Wow, 450 mm is a bit much! We had about 150 here in total and I’ve been in the garden today, you only need to dig down an inch or so to hit dry. I have no idea where all that water went but I’m pretty sure 450 mm would have managed to soak more than the top inch!
I hope you and yours avoided too much damage and that the cleanup goes well.
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