Before The Storm

On Sunday, the sun was shining.

Mr HP, Miss Seven, her Mum and Dad and I, went for a bush walk.

A leech became attached to my shin.

I now have a nasty reaction to the leech bite.

Today I drove myself to the GP to have it seen to.  Luckily it's not infected.  It's inflamed and at times gets extremely itchy.

I drove in extreme weather for thirty minutes to get to my appointment. Since Sunday night it's hardly stopped raining.

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night. I realised that I had woken because the rain had stopped.  The silence had woken me up.  But it wasn't long before it was raining again.

Before Sunday we'd already had more than our fair share of rain so everything was damp and squishy, hence the leeches (well there were two leeches all up...and five humans)  We came across an interesting variety of fungi on our walk. 

Since Sunday night, Springwood has had around 150mm of rain.  We have been fortunate though, as we've had very little wind and so have been spared the devastation that has struck the coastal regions of the south east of Australia.

Today, Sydney airport was disrupted, railway tracks were flooded, a cruise ship locked out of port, flood rescues carried out, towns devastated as residents watched houses floating down the street, schools closed, and sadly, confirmation of lives lost was announced.

Flash floods are not uncommon in Australia, but it's not often do we experience such immediate devastation from flooding.  In this instance, the accompanying wind would have classed this as a category two tropical cyclone.  But technically, this storm is not a cyclone, because it did not occur over tropical waters, but it is an intense low-pressure system packing winds gusts of up to 135km per hour.

This Month In The Garden - April.

We have had a most unusual weather pattern this past summer and now into autumn. We are into our second autumn month and I have seen not one gold coloured leaf as yet.

On April 4 Springwood received 76 mm of rain.  In one hour on the same day 10.4 mm of rain fell.  I have had to rescue some of my potted plants from the extreme amounts of rain.  One of these potted plants is an orchid that I have managed to grow from a cutting given to me by a local orchid enthusiasts and professional grower, Alan, who I met by chance at a garage sale.  He was generous and happy enough to take Mr HP and I for an impromptu tour of his nursery in Glenbrook one Saturday afternoon last June or July.  He offered me two cuttings he found on one of his work tables which I gratefully accepted and then gingerly planted into two small glazed terracotta pots when we arrived home.  

I have only every grown dendrobium or Sydney rock orchids so I was a little dubious about the success I would have with these.  For the first six to seven months they resided in the loft studio above our garage bathed in filtered light from a west facing window. I watered them rarely, almost forgetting their existence. I didn't hold much hope for them but after a few months some new growth appeared and then as the weather became warmer and our youngest moved back home, they began impinging on his space, so I moved the pots outdoors and hoped that they would continue to thrive.

Which they did.

On Easter Sunday one little flower bloomed and today I was thrilled to find all the flowers blooming happily, bopping their little heads in unison each time someone walked by the table on which I have now placed them in an attempt to control  the amount of water they receive.

Although I'm not 100% sure...I think they are Cirrhopetalum ornatissimum.

It's been love at first sight!  I wonder what surprise the other little pot will have to offer soon? 

Some Rain Must Fall

Day Two of our mini-holiday and we wander down to Milson's Point via Luna Park. It's cloudy but we're brave and leave our umbrellas at home.

We see a cruise ship waiting to enter Circular Quay and think it's left the quay and for some reason is returning but later we realise that it's a different ship but from the same cruise company.

From Milson's Point a ferry ride takes us to Circular Quay once more and we head off to The Rocks again, only to find that the museum we plan to visit in Susannah Place does not open until 2 p.m.

So we wander around, a little bit lost as where to go.  We find some stairs that lead to the Sydney Harbour Bridge but instead take a less strenuous route alongside the stairs and found ourselves at Observatory Hill.

Little Miss and I spend a wonderful couple of hours inside the Sydney Observatory and take a tour of the telescope room.

 The domed roof of the room turns.

Not only does it turn, but it opens up too.

Outside, we are disappointed to see the clouds.

Clouds mean we can't view the sun through the solar telescope, so instead we look at the traffic on Sydney Harbour Bridge, which, weirdly, is all upside down!

Outside, the sky gets darker and darker, 

the clouds get heavier and heavier

..we manage to eat morning tea in the gardens before feeling the first drops of rain and make a dash for Circular Quay.

We make it in time to miss the heavy shower which lasts long enough for us to meet up with my daughter for lunch.

After lunch it's back to Susannah Place to visit the museum.

Little Miss is enthralled with the stories our tour guide tells us about families that once lived in the row of terrace houses that is Susannah Place.
Each room we visit inside remains as it was when it was occupied by various families before being turned into a museum.  We learn that initially, The Rocks was not necessarily a desirable place to live, and local residents would sometimes lie about their address.  My how times have changed!

Afterwards, we purchase lollies at the 'corner shop'.  (I can't believe that I've taken no photos of Susannah Place!)

Across the road from Susannah Place is The Big Dig which is an archaeological dig of an 18th century European development in Sydney which was demolished to prevent the spread of plague.

Around the dig is the YHA building.

And we return'home' without the need for our umbrellas!