For the first time in longer than any of us care to recall, Canberrans were forced to stay indoors for nearly the whole weekend because of heavy rains. Most are saying it’s been a decade since we had this much rain but I don’t think many of us realised just how much until we got the chance to step outside late this afternoon and see just how much water there is around.
All of those scenes are from immediately near my house, in places where normally there is a trickle of a creek, or a bike track, or just brown, dead grassland. To walk outside and hear the sound of rushing water is not something I thought I’d ever experience. Actually, it’s not really something to aspire to as I’m sure there are people around who have suffered water damage to their homes as a result of that rushing water, but that the air moist and the ground no longer baked beneath brittle plant life is such a miraculous change that it has to be celebrated. We weren’t the only ones out and about. It seems many people had the same idea, stepping out of their caves to come and marvel at the rushing waters.
We made good use of our indoor weekend though. I began gestating Elijah. So much fun to knit and stuff an elephant’s head in an afternoon!
And we made use of our bumper plum crop (amazing in spite of the drought!) and made Chilli Plum sauce, enough for another year.
A very satisfying, and damp, weekend.
Bells
