This is not the usual post over the past year or so from me bemoaning how dry it is, fires have totally burnt my place, isn’t it hot for this time of year or my garden is dying.
No it’s not!!!
Prompted by a Ragtag Daily Prompt Friday: Wonderland
This is about this wonderland called Australia, my home and place I love. Let me preface the next few words and photos with the second stanza of a famous Australian poem – My Country by Dorethea Mackellar
“I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains,
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me.”
These words are so apt for me at the moment as it is raining. Not just raining but actual downpours of wonderful wonderful rain. Over the past two days I have measured one hundred mls of rain falling on my blacked landscape. The dry parched earth is a tumult of rushing water filling dams and water tanks. I am sure you would like to see a bit. I ventured out to get a few images for you, juggling an umbrella and my camera in the pouring rain
Look puddles
The grass has started to sprout already. My place is going from brown to green
I can never tire of watching water flow into my water tanks or hearing the rain on the roof and gurgling down the water pipes and into the water tank
One amazing phenomena of the eucalyptus trees foaming.
“Essentially what’s happening is as rain falls on trees it’s dissolving chemicals off the leaves and bark and the compounds the trees produce act as a natural soap,” he said.
“Because of it acting like a detergent, water will then basically foam up as it’s running down the tree trunk.”
Mr Warren said the chemicals were produced mostly by eucalyptus trees to defend themselves against microbes and herbivores.
“You see the foaming much more after a dry spell because it gives the chemicals time to accumulate on the leaves,” he said.
“It’s quite a common phenomenon but it’s really spectacular.””
The foam is accumulating at the base of the Spotted Gums as they have a smooth bark
At this time of year the Spotted Gums drop their bark revealing many colours and textures
Yes that’s water in the background rushing down the gully to the big dam. Usually I cannot see this water only hear it as the vegetation covers the landscape
Remember that burning log I kept going on about? This is water flowing past going into the dam I use for around the house.
Here is the dam filling. That small patch of lillies was the size of the water in the dam three days ago
As you may have guessed I am one very happy person. I may get cut off from going to town due to localised flooding but I have enough to sustain me for quite a while.
This has taken a while to write as my satellite connection kept dropping out due to the heavy rain
Also LPM Photo Adventures: Rural Life
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