It is normal in winter to have rain. After an excellent fall of rain in March or was it April crops were sown and optimism was high. The sun shone; day after day it shone. The temperatures remained high and the rains did not fall again. Except for a very occasional drop of rain; not enough to lay the dust.
The farming community began to worry. Where were the winter rains? Would they have a viable crop? Optimism dropped off and pessimism began to rear its ugly head.
Earlier this week the weather forecasters were optimistic! Rain, maybe up to 60ml would fall mid-week. This morning the weather man predicted a 90% chance of rain. Goody, goody!
Mid morning the wind came up and dust began to spread its clinging coat all over; indoors and out.
The view down the road was blurry and the dust crept into eyes and up the nose.
Up the road the view was the same; blurry, and being outdoors was uncomfortable.
The electricity failed but thankfully it came on after an hour or so. Time to hurry with lunch while there was power! I happened to look outside as we could hear small branches falling onto the roof. Sand crept in under the door which rattled with every gust of wind. Then I noticed the damage ... a huge gum tree had been wrenched from the ground with the power of the wind. It did not land on anything except the road.
After phoning the neighbour to inform her of the 'mishap' [the tree was outside her boundary fence on the verge of the road] I phoned the local Shire. Help was on its way within half an hour! This was indeed an excellent response.
A man in a truck and carrying a chain saw arrived. The branches were cut off, the neighbour's fence which had been caught up in the upturned roots of the tree was righted, and later a loader arrived and pushed the tree branches onto the side of the road leaving the stump in its original position albeit with its roots exposed to the weather.
I was given to understand that the tree and other branches that had fallen nearby will be removed in the near future.
It isn't often that we have such excitement in the neighbourhood! But still there has been no rain!
I will swap you one tree,for our fire,and give you some rain. No,we were desperate for rain and have had our months supply in 2 days.
ReplyDeleteThe weather all over the world is going crazy i think. I also worry about trees falling here in the winter and fire in the summer, (as long as we dont have other BIG things to worry about).
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