My People

I compete in agility. I compete in dog obedience occasionally but enjoy agility a great deal more. The last trial I competed at last year was held at the Obedience Dog Club of Brisbane's Oxley grounds. It was teeming with rain and the mud underfoot was like a soggy marsh. It was horrible but we enjoyed ourselves immensely!

The Oxley clubhouse sits at a bend in the Brisbane River so, when we recieved reports the river was rising there were concerns for the clubhouse. Some members went down and removed new electrical equipment and sandbagged the meeting room. And this was the image we were presented with when the flood came through...

Yes, that is water to the eaves. We were camping in that spot between those trees the night of the trial. When the floodwaters receded, the kids and I decided to head out to help with the cleanup.

It did our hearts glad to see Brisbanes Mud Army out on the streets in full force. Cars were passing us full of people with shovels, brooms and gumboots strapped to the roof racks. Utes went past with water guerneys on them. Milton Rd was blocked with traffic all trying to get in to help. To the left and right, down side streets, you could see hives of people coming in to clean up. There were people in shiny clean gumboots passing people with mud from nose to toes, greetings were shared, sleeves were rolled up and everyone got dirty! It took us an hour and a half to get from Banyo in the North to Oxley in the South down the Centenary Highway. Its normally about a forty minute run.

This was the sight that greeted us.

Under that grey looking cover is green grass. The grey coverage is mud. It is a good few inches deep in mud. Everything is covered in a coating of thick, smelly mud. Did I mention that its muddy?????

We donned our boots and hats and got to work in cleaning off the mountain of agility equpment that needed to be scrubbed down. All three of my kids dug in and helped.

Lunch time showed us the depth of human kindness that is welling through the flood zone. A gentleman came randomly in, asked if we needed feeding and gave us sandwiches, homemade biscuits and cupcakes. We also shared a feast of fish and chips bought by the club and offered our food to those passing by. After we had gone back to work we were met with the sight of an elderly lady picking her way through the mud and silt. She came up and asked us if we needed sandwiches. Even though we were right, I gave her a hug and said thankyou. It was the least I could do.

We scrubbed and cleaned and washed and swilled and cleaned and scrubbed some more and yet, there was still another surprise for us as we went to leave. Someone had left a bottle of juice, some choc chip biscuits and a packet of marshmallows on the tray of our ute.

On the way back home we saw more of Brisbane at its worst and best. A McDonalds flooded to the eaves. Playgrounds covered in flood silt. Piles and piles of household goods stacked on the sidewalk like so many broken lives. Shops closed, houses bared for all to see. And the people, out in force like an army of ants, smling, laughing. Those people who couldn't help were on the corners of streets with barbeques making sausages and food for the workers.

I am so proud of my city, so proud of my people...black, white, pink, purple and the strange greyish brown we all are at the moment, these are my people. Thankyou....

Cin

There are moments

There are moments when you just want to take back what you said. Can I take back that I was sick of the weather, can I take back moaning how inconvenient it was? Because if I could take it back, then maybe we could take back the inland Tsunami that swept through Toowoomba and down into the Lockyer Valley killing twelve people. Maybe I could take back the fluctuating totals of missing from around 50-70 at any given time. Maybe I could take back the devastating stock losses and crop losses which will cripple this country for the next few months if not years....

Leading up to this tragedy, we had weeks of rain and Brisbane was coping. There was isolated flooding but Brisbane was coping. Then a deluge hit Toowoomba at the top of the ranges and turned into an inland tidal wave that swept cars, businesses, animals, homes and sadly people with it. We watched in horror as a family were swept away in their station wagon. Reports have come to light that the mother and child were rescued by helicopter but the father is still missing.

Wivenhoe Dam was built to protect Brisbane from a flood and it was doing its job....until the water hit Toowoomba. Wivenhoe was sitting on 160% capacity and the flood gates had been released. 200,000 megalitres of water was flowing out every hour while 1 000 000 was flowing in. BUT the Brisbane River was handling it. As the flood swept down the ranges, it picked up momentum and the rest of the water that was inundating the South East. All of that water has then dumped itself into an already swollen Brisbane river. And something had to give. The Brisbane River, Brisbane itself and its surrounding suburbs have been swallowed up by a fast rising flood. Businesses have been destroyed, lives lost and people have been afraid.

Wivenhoe Dam in 2008, during the drought.
Yesterday....

Its a scary time for everyone with the river only just beginning to peak. There are around 60 people missing, grave fears are held for their safety. Times to come will be hard as the cleanup begins.

However, through it all, our quirky sense of humour has shone through. Some wag put floaties and a snorkel on our iconic statue of Wally Lewis at Suncorp Stadium. Now that the Stadium has gone under, someone else reckons it'll be a great water polo venue. In flooded streets you can see "Wet Floor" signs. And the Mayor of Ipswich, in true Aussie style, said that looters would get "the shit kicked outta them and then used as flood markers." Thats the spirit!

The last word has to come from our Premier, Anna Bligh, who has stood fast throughout this ordeal, keeping everyone up to date. She said, "We're the ones they knock down and we get up again." We'll survive this, we'll pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off and start again....and look anxiously to the skies as cyclone season rolls in.

I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of ragged moutain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewelled sea, her beauty- and her terror- the wide brown land for me. Thankyou Dorothy McKellar, you couldn't have said it any better.

Pavers and Things that go BUMP!

Just before this last amount of rain set in, I managed to do one of those jobs that you keep meaning to do but just put off.

I was given a huge pile of pavers to pave my stud pen with and just hadn't gotten around to doing it. I knew I had two girls coming to stay soon and figured it had to be done. So, I bought some sand and raked out the pen. Aiden was busy throwing a spectacular tantrum (I'm NOT cleaning my room and YOU can't make me...yes, I can't make you but I CAN make you stay IN your room til you do!) so Caitie and Conor buckled down and helped me. It was another example of having lovely kids helping out to make a chore go quicker. At the end of the hour it took we had run out of paver but had enough room left to put two lovely grass plants in for the cats to play hide and seek amongst. Tick another job off the list!

and then down came the rain and it rained and it rained and it rained and it rained and are you starting to see a pattern here?

And I want to share another quick story about the kids before I go back to sulking about the rain.

We had about a half hour when the rain stopped so we took Nell, the stafford, to an area down from us where she can go offlead and we could look at the flood water from a safe distance. The kids were around five meters from me and slightly behind me when I noticed movement around a meter or two in front of me. It was a young brown snake.

Brown snakes are deadly. And this one was only small, around a meter long, but still deadly. I froze and called, "Stop, SNAKE" and every single one of my three kids froze in their tracks. Caitie fell apart and kept whimpering, "Mummy. mummy, mummy" but she didn't move. Nell was coming toward me, directly in line with the snake when I dropped one hand, spun on my heel and gave her another hand signal and she ran around to my right, missing where the snake was (gotta love agility hand signals!)

We then quietly turned and walked away. I was so proud that my three kids froze and did exactly what I had taught them to do. We live in an area where snakes are common enough and this one was awfully close. It had right of way and we left it to go where it needed to go without any hysterics on our behalf. Well done guys!

Four Seasons

I love the changing of the seasons, especially where I live. Living sub-Tropical means that the subtleties of the weather are less pronounced and you need to be in tune with your area to know and understand when seasons end and change.

This year Summer has been a long time coming. We have had squally, windy, rainy days that are just not seen where I live. Its almost Melbourne like! Summer here is days of oppressive heat and humidity where it feels like you are swimming upright. The sun blasts out of a windless sky and sucks the moisture out of your skin. Nothing moves and the cicada's singing in the trees make a strident melody with the mournful moaning of the crows. Summer is school holidays and Christmas, stonefruit and mangoes. Watermelons eaten on freshly mown lawns, with your knees around your ears and spitting seeds at your siblings. Summer is hot but it is broken by a crescendo of sound and lighting that puts any NYE celebration to shame. The storms that roll in are like a Latin Lovers quarrel, vibrant and noisy and shortlived. The world holds its breath as the rain heavy clouds roll in. Then the earth breathes out and the storm hits and lashes with fury. Rain is big drops or massive hail.

Summer nights are either sauna hot, with the mosquitos singing in the dark or spent watching your husband sleep, listening to the rain on the tin roof and seeing him lit up as the lightning races across the sky and the thunder booms into the still air. Ozone is the smell of summer. Frogs making melodies in the pond amongst the raindrops are one of the sounds of summer.

Autumn reminds of a baby with the hiccups. Days of blazing heat at first with a slight catch in the wind. Searingly hot summer breezes soften and relax. The air has a crispness to it that catches you unawares and, before you know it, you are wearing a dressing gown in the mornings and the dog is cold at night. After the endless wringing heat of summer, the world again breathes out, in soft morning puffs of cool air. In my garden Autumn is heralded by the swelling flower buds of the Grevilleas and the Banksias. The birds begin to lengthen their visits as the flowers start to appear. Around the pond it becomes strangely silent as the frogs start to huddle in for a crisply cool winter.

Winter is a time of balmy days and cold nights. Long walks on freezing cold beaches or in the rain followed by hot chocolate with marshmallows and bubble baths afterward. Children with cold noses and sparkling eyes. Slippers and seven cats in the bed at night. My garden has burst into a glorious riot of colour as Lady Queensland puts on her finest for the winter dance. Flowers are heavy with nectar and the bees drone quietly in the soft winter sunshine. While Summer is a season of water, Winter is dry and you can feel it in your bones. Skin is itchy and static is clingy as the August winds sweep in drying everything out and making people cranky. Jumpers stick to your skin and kids spend time shocking everyone with the static electricity from their shoes. The days are too short and the nights never seem long enough. Flannelette sheets make winter a welcome snuggling time.

And then its Spring. It creeps in quietly, one day at a time. The breeze is no longer crisp but warm and welcoming, surrounding you and caressing your skin. The world begins to wake up and stretch but this time with a huge indrawn breath. Early storms march across the horizon and waken the frogs. Night time is busiest with the dok-doks and trills never seeming to end. The soft and sensual introduction to spring never last long and its only a matter of days before the sun is blazing down and we are wondering where winter went.

This years Seasonal Salsa has changed. We have had days and days of never ending rain followed by weak sunshine. Our total has been a week at most of sunshine and heat. And strangely enough, I miss it. I miss that expectation of a good summer storm, of the smell of lightning as it cracks open the sky and lands in the nearby parks. I miss the almight roars as it tears across the horizon. I miss it but I know that it will be back. When the earth breathes in again.

Cindy

Summer.....

Summer is here, finally and I forgot how truly awful it can be where we live. I am NOT a morning person and, since the kids are on holidays and we own our own business and we're on a weeks holiday, I tend to sleep in. Then when I get up it is already hot, hot, hot!

The unending humidity drains the strength out of you and makes you irritable. Team it with weeks of rain and you have a devastating mix of washing to do, mud, mosquitoes and high humidity. We also have a whole heap of yard work to do which just kills you in this heat. We tend to do what we have to do before 10am and then retire inside to catch up on indoor chores. The kids are I then have a lunchbreak around 12-2 or 3 where we watch a movie, play a game, read or just have quiet time. After 3 its cool enough in our backyard to go out and do some of the endless lopping and raking that a large sized yard offers up.

Today, I tackled the litter pile. We breed cats and cats have to poop and pee somewhere and we are lucky enough to use an all natural wood based product that breaks down and recycles really well. Problem is we have native trees that don't like a high acid soil. Hence the litter pile. It was fenced in on all sides by a corrugated tin fence but that fence had fallen down somewhat and it was teamed with my childrens inability to throw the litter waste into the center of the pile. Said pile had escaped and had worked its way UNDER my washing line. It irritated me no end and I finally had the chance to put it to rights. Before anyone goes all faint and carries on, it was like broken down woodshavings not actual poop. Poop was removed beforehand.

Anyway, I had started to shovel and cart it into the mud soaked chookpen (which is a whole other issue) and was met by Caitie who asked what I was doing. When I told her, she grabbed another shovel and started to help. I could have fallen over! Then, down came Conor....who grabbed another shovel and started to help....this was getting freaky. Finally Aiden came down and was handed a shovel by Caitlin and he jumped in to help as well. At this point toes were being close to being chopped off by four shovels going at once, so I proposed a Conga line.

There we were, Caitie- shovel, dump, back of the line, Aiden-shovel, dump, back of the line, Conor-shovel, dump, back of the line and finally Mummy-shovel, dump, back of the line. I kept the kids motivated by cheering them on and praising the size of the shovelfulls we had to get. It took about half an hour, if that, of solid work and my fence was restored on all four sides, we had had a run in with a legless lizard, numerous spiders and we all had fun!

Tomorrow, I have to do the same sort of thing with the used mulch in my stud cat pen as we have some Layyyydies coming to visit my boy. Lets see if I can get the Conga line started with the promise of iceblocks????