A big sky

I took this image on 25 February when the sky was filled with large slow moving cloud. Today at 8:45Am the sky is clear and blue, the humidity low and a crispness that almost feels like autumn. Blissful.

Last Night's Storm

Yesterday evening between 5:30 and 6:00 PM we had a lovely late summer storm. Small amounts of thunder and lightening were followed by a short very heavy down pour causing gutters to overflow and making so much noise on the corrugated iron roof that it made conversation impossible. After the storm passed we had intermittent showers throughout the night.
This morning it feels cool and damp but I am sure we are in for another hot and humid day.
I am just about to set off on my crutches for the verandah tour of the garden. I'm hoping to see the little white crocuses that always come up after the rain. And I do.

High Summer in the Garden

After that winge about the humidity I have managed to propel myself and my camera onto the verandah to take some summer snaps.

Physostegia (Gallipoli heath) is always a late summer constant in my garden. I love the way that, if you clear a path for it when its first shoots appear, you will be rewarded with beautiful cobalt violet flowers when everything else is going off. Witness the azalia beside it which is yellow with forced undernourished growth so typical of this time of the year.

In the second shot I love the heaviness as the leaves droop weighed down by the water from two days rain.

Blogger is not cooperating. Pictures at a later date.

Humidity

Oh how I hate humidity. It is currently 21degrees and 75% humidity. I feel hot and itchy my skin crawls and there are damp patches behind my knees and my hair is wet. The dog, who obviously doesn't have a humidity register is insisting on lying wedged up against me.

I must try to hobble to the verandah to record these tropical moments.

Why no photos.

I haven't posted for quite a while for several reasons.
Firstly I fell and broke my leg in three places a week and a half ago. This severely limits my mobility as I live up a large flight of stairs.
But more importantly I have been observing the weather conditions to the north and south of Australia and thinking a lot about the enormous power of weather that we will never tame or control.
Having been in Brisbane for the 1974 floods I still remember the feelings of loss, isolation and camaraderie as we had communal meals with those who had no power. I remember tucking my skirt in my knickers to wade through water to go to work because I worked in a government office which gave aid to flood victims and victims of Cyclone Tracy. But these were not relentless floods accompanied by weeks (not days) of torrential rain.
Three thousand kilometers away protracted heat waves, strong winds and dry vegetation provide the conditions which result in an inferno which claims lives and leaves thousands homeless. One reporter hesitantly compares the scene to a war zone.
All of which makes me think as I lie on my comfortable bed, working on my laptop, having just used the remote control to turn on the air conditioner because the laptop makes my legs hot, that we lead such sheltered lives in our domestic cocoons.
I think a lot about how we are just a small part of the system, with the knowledge and resources to destroy ecosystems and visit the moon but not contain fire. About how until we are faced with chaos, loss and despair we probably have no idea what it might be like to live in a war zone, be homeless or lose the ones we love to a force we cannot control or understand.

28th January

The garden at home has received 154.5mm of rain in the last ten days of January. The garden is lush and green with growth. The lettuces can't stand the heat and have gone to seed, this will be collected for sowing next season; other crops like the eggplants are thriving.