Cyclones as we call them here in Australia are shaped very like a galaxy I noticed looking at the Bureau of Meteorological‘s radar … this from earlier in the day
And that shape explains why, in various places maybe 11 kilometres from the coast, all we’ve been having is the effects of the various arms of the spiraliing cyclonic system.
Just a bunch of fairly light rain and wind at first, slowly increasing in strength, up to now at 8 pm, when it’s really raining, not just drizzle blowing in the wind.
Some of you may know that South East Queensland and Northern NSW are expecting Tropical Cyclone Alfred imminently, a category 2 system at present. Crossing the coast some time this evening.
Some of you reading this are in it with me with horizontal rain on the coast since early this morning. It’s 2.30 pm at mine with a blustery wind and gappy rain resembling buckets of water thrown into the wind every so often.
I thought I was as prepared as I could be but my lovely son just brought me a camping torch lantern, a water bucket with tap, and a small camping stove.
And then he carried all my outdoor furniture and delicate plants inside , all of that stored into the spare room.
Finally, to finish off his visit, he clipped Moggy’s nails.
Spare room …. indoors I have the citrus (a branch broken already) and the velvet leaf kurrajong. Also a maidenhair fern and a bonsai fig.
Balcony left side ….
Balcony right side …
All the plants remaining outside are meant to be whippy and flexible, three figs and a millaa millaa scrambler. We’ll see how they go.
Doors are still open, wind is from the east so glances past my balcony from the left.
I remember a few years back when there was a small concern about the effect of drones on birds. That thinking seems to have gone away like it never existed. It seems like it’s full steam ahead everywhere with drones, no concern about the natural world at all.
Can you believe it? There’s even bird-watching with drones, as well as tree-planting! As a tree-planter with Landcare for twenty years, I have my doubts that a drone can successfully stick a plant or seed in the ground, cover it (its roots) with soil, water it in and come back regularly to check on it. As for birdwatching, by drone, I have yet to be convinced.
While I haven’t seen any deliveries by drones first-hand, and really have no desire for such, I hear that it is a real thrill to get a parcel delivered by a little robotic airplane.
I hear drones quite often, in parks generally, where people are practicing their new skills flying them. I saw a Youtube video just now of a person explaining all the ways he has to protect his drone from bird attack. His drone, he explained, is his livelihood. Which gives him a right to protect it from birds.
I suppose if termites took over the earth, they’d be just as uncaring of the rest of the natural world as humans are.
Anthony Roberts from Tony’s Bologna reminds me to talk about something I’m emotionaly responding to … not sure of the grammar there.
I’m not in the mood for grammar. I’m cold, hospital aircon is like the Antarctic. I’m standing swaying, with a blanket over my shoulders in my ED hutch (roomlet in the energency department) at the Mater (Hospital) in South Brisbane.
Been here for four and a half hours, had a canula put in that’ll give me the pip for weeks the bruise surrounding it is momentous.
Waiting for the results of the CT scan I had half an hour a go figuring if there’s a good/bad reason for the blockage in my gut. Waiting for the pain to be flushed out.
ED beds are the pits, as I’m sure everybody who has ever languished in ED knows. I’m too tall, my feet always flush against the footboard. How do really tall people manage?
Does it sound like I’m moaning? Does to me. Emotions are totally tied into physical sensations, you know? There is no brain body separation.
The time is 13.13 … one of those synergies I have with time. When I check the time, ther’s more often than not a little pattern to enjoy. Synergies might be the wrong word. I’m frazzled, frustrated and freaking!
OK, I can still do alliteration. Can still think. Discomfort is in overdrive. Now to find a pic that describes how I’m feeling …
Out of My Gord’s thoughts on news and where to get it chime pretty well with mine, though I’m still looking for a dependable Australian news outlet that doesn’t cost too much for a subscription. I’ve been making do with COSMOS Science magazine and The Fifth Estate Magazine for topics I’m interested in, but haven’t yet found a nutritional news feed.
Did I tell you I’ve been learning under? As in a kibble under a piece of paper. Too easy. Then a kibble under a little plastic dome. Not so easy.
Now it’s all about a kibble in a thing too small to get my nose into. Or my tongue.
See the kibble in that thing? It’s harder than it looks. Harder than the kibble under the little dome. That one you just shove along with your nose and eventually the kibble gets left behind and you can eat it.
The black thing took me ages to work out coz it isn’t slippery. It just sat there when I pushed it with my nose.
Out of sheer frustration trying to keep my fish pond/pot going, I intro’ed a couple of baby sedges after most of the so-called water plants died, and even the duckweed gave up.
Sedges will grow half in water, and in my past life, when I had a frog pond going for years, swamp plants were a strong feature. These often have their roots and soil substrate in the water, and their leaves above. s
I suspect they somehow condition the water, enabling other plants to grow. I certainly never had any problem keeping either Azolla water fern or duck weed alive and used to raise dozens of tadpoles to frog-dom.
If I knew anyone with karamat I’d go and beg a cutting but haven’t seen it since leaving the Byron Shire. Both these sedges are usually quite weedy though the little one at the back as far as I know is native to Australia.
‘Weeded’ them both from the local verges while out walking. One of them from the creek overflow. About ten days in their new position they don’t look like they’re dying.
The pebbles are to provide an island for bees and other insects to drink. (Though I need to top up the water.) And if I pour the water onto the pebbles there is hardly any disturbance in the water.
There’s one lone Pacific Blue Eye remaining of the seven fish I got for my birthday 10 months ago.
Rita de Heer 