The whole time the emergency was raging outside, nobody did much. I’ve compared times with a few other people on this seems no one had any energy to do much else other than concentrate on the storm raging around us.

Six days ago I took this shot at night, storm clouds gathering

While the whole system moved sluggishly toward the coast it was like I was stultified, couldn’t concentrate on anything other thsn reading eternal weather reports. I did not knit, paint, write, read. Couldn’t settle to anything.

Watched the birds out on the so-called paddock. Crows, pigeons, lots of ducks, magpies, a stone curlew, ibis, plovers, and a couple of white cockatoos.

Pigeons work through the weeds in the foreground in the morning hours. A lot of birds sat companionably in the lee of that pile of rocks.

I watched a tree being pounded to the ground. This kurrajong held out until the second last day, in the constant and blustery east wind. It didn’t stand a chance, growing on the podium in what amounts to a planter, it’s roots wouldn’t have been deep enough for it to take the brunt of the wind.

And I baked bread, having just got a bread machine. The retirement village where I live has a back-up generator which meant we had a power interruption for all of about three seconds until the generator kicked in. Very lucky.

My second loaf. The inside looks somewhat grey, though the bread is very tasty.