A Wet Christmas

After I collected Louis from the kennels I decided that I would keep busy and catch up with the jobs around the home.  I started well on Wednesday by mowing the grass which is euphemistically know as the front and rear lawns but is actually a mixture of green weeds and wild grasses.   I use an old push mower to cut about 200 square metres so it takes some time especially after rain in our early summer.  It took about two hours of continuous pushing but I enjoyed it.  As I explained to my neighbout, S, I just put my mind in neutral and push!  Louis generally supervises by lying alternately in sunny and shady spots.  The day was warm, 30C,  and I was satisfied that I had done enough and took it easy for the rest of the day.

The next day was Thursday and I put in place my next resolution to use my little folding bike for shopping.  This was a great success.  I rode about 25km.  First to Noosa Junction for my general shopping at Aldi then to Noosa Civic where I picked up some odds and ends not stocked by Aldi.  The day was warm so I only bought items not requiring refrigeration.  The ride to the Junction is along the main road but is quite safe but the ride to Civic was along a superb bike track.  It runs about 5 metres from the road and actually passes under the road at a couple of round-abouts / traffic circles.  I never knew this track existed as you can't see it from the road.      The ride home from Civic to Tewantin was not so nice but quite safe.

Later in the day B and I walked our dogs in the park and as we neared home a big thunderstorm was about to break and the high winds were making the big gums sway.  As we crossed the bridge out of the park branches were beginning to fly.  We made it to our respective homes in time just as the heavens opened.  Soon after there was a terrific lightening strike near by with a simultaneous clap of thunder Louis jumped but luckilly he is very calm in thunderstorms.

Next morning the park was a mess.    First the tree which we observed swaying the evenining before now looked like:

     We were walking next to this.

But even more scary was the tree hit by lightning.    

 The main trunk lies to the right of the picnic table.

   The rest of the tree lies in the bush behind the table.

This tree fell parallel to the houses behind it.  Is was about 30 metres long so could have done real damage if it had fallen on the houses.  A few hunded metres away a similar tree took out the corner of a two story house.   It took a large crane to remove it.

In all we lost about 7 or 8 large trees in the park.

Since then it has done nothing but rain so I'll bore you with some statisitcs.

In December the average rain fall is 132mm over 13 days.

The maximum ever to date was 214mm

Up to 8.00am on the 29 Dec we have had 471mm over 23 Days

In a normal year Tewantin has 1571mm.

To date we have had 2270mm mainly since October .

Needless to say I haven't done any more cycling to the shops.

Over Christmas I went to my old friends J an B on Christmas Day and stayed until Boxing day.  They live in a good sized retirement villa with their old cattle dog, Pancho, and a young scruffy dog called Scamp.  As dogs have to have permission to live in the Retirement Village they were pushing the boundaries by letting me bring Louis with me.

Christmas Day was relatively dry and after lunch B and i went swimming in the villages superb pool.  We also walked the dogs but got caught in a heavy shower.

The amusing thing was that Scamp fell in love with Louis and spent much of his time trying to consummate his love in spite of both of them being neutered males.  Luckily Louis didn't take offence.

I stayed for lunch on Boxing Day but by now the rain had returned with a vengeance.  We filled in time watching the Test Cricket on the TV but as the Poms were thrashing Australia it did nothing to brighten the occasion.  Even Scamp and Louis settled down .

Scamp and Louis

I drove home after lunch in heavy rain.  Later I walked around to my friends J to have dinner with her 91 year old Mum plus Mum's boy friend and a Japanese student who spent Christmas with J.  It was a quiet evening and J dropped off at home on the way to taking the oldies back to their retirement home.

It had been a nice quiet Christmas but since then it has rained heavily every day.  Fortunately my house is at the top of a rise and providing I keep the side gates clear of debris the water just runs down each side of the house.  The back lawn is under about three inches of water at present.