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Monday, October 11, 2010

WET, WET, WET !


This morning I woke up to this view of the back lawn.......


and this is the front path......


and this is next door's fron garden !!!

Yes, it's rained all night .....
and yes, this is a BIG thing for us !

Ever since I've been writing this blog I've been moaning and whingeing about:
 how DRY it is
how HOT it is,
how Brown the lawn is.
Well, the drought has broken.
It's been slowly improving for a while now...
and the dam that supplies us with drinking water has slowly been filling up courtesy of a dam further up the river overflowing.
But, with the rain we've had over the weekend we've finally made it.
Our dam is officially full for the first time in TEN years !
In fact there is so much water that they have to let some of it out so they have opened the spillway for the first time in ten years.

We couldn't miss this opportunity to see all that water so Tony and I set off to have a look.

It is still raining a bit ......

and there's plenty of water around.

We arrived at the dam and drove first into the lovely picnic areas. 


No-one picnicing today !

All is deserted...

and yes, it certainly is FULL !



This poor little be-draggled magpie was all fluffed up trying to dry off his feathers in one of the many picnic shelters.

We drove around to have a look at the spillway.


The air was full of spray from the huge amount of water that was being released from the dam.


and the water was surging off down the Brisbane River towards town.


I inched  my way towards the railing to get a better shot of the spillway, clutching the umbrella over my head trying to protect the camera.
All I could manage was a one-handed point and shoot, as I battled to prevent the umbrella from turning inside out in the strong gusts of wind caused by the powerful water below.


Very wet despite the umbrella and raincoat, I sent Tony out to try his luck .


This is the photo he managed to take.


and one of the boiling cauldren below us.

By this time we were wet and bedraggled so we dried off with a towel we had cleverly thought to bring with us and  headed home.

Cheers. 

14 comments:

  1. Living in SE Qld seems to involve extremes, either drought or flood. Since Friday we have had a grand total of 328 mm (almost 13 inches) here, I am so glad I live on a hill. Hopefully we will have some respite for the rest of the week. I would like to dry out. Glad too see you weren't affected by flooding

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  2. Wow Helsie that is amazing and must be such a contrast to what you usually get! My daughter keeps telling me it's grey and wet and Sod's Law that after 10 years of drought she chooses this year to backpack round OZ!! There's something really enjoyable about getting wet and then going home to get dried out even here so I imagine it must be more so for you?

    Jane

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  3. Thanks for the great pics, especially of the dam! it looks so beautiful!! I think we all had come to the decision that we would NEVER see it full again in our lifetime!! I live up high on a hill too! so no flooding issues, but oh, this glorious rain - I hope it goes on all week -- yes, really I do! After going through so many "dry" years, I think we can put up with a week or two of this wet stuff:-)

    It's great sewing weather:-)

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  4. Marg,
    We are on the top of a hill too - a good place to be in Queensland. The forecast is for more on the weekend I hear !!!
    Jane,
    Yes, it is a pity as our weather is usually sunny ALL THE TIME !!!! I guess that's why I love the rain.
    Cheers

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  5. Wow! You two certainly are adventurous! Enjoy the wetness while you can and hopefully you won't have any flooding!

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  6. "Water, water, everywhere, and
    not a drop to drink".

    Very impressive.
    I thought at one stage that you were going to take up 'white water rafting'!

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  7. Fantastic pictures!

    We stole your sun and brought it down South. We've had 4 days of beautiful weather which is due to end today.Showers for us until the end of the week.

    Enjoy the rain. After so much drought and dry it must be a novel experience!

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  8. Goodness if it's not one thing it's the other for you down there. Next week I bet you'll be having a heatwave! That much rain is even too much for us in the UK and we have our fair share believe me x

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  9. I was wondering if you were high and dry. Probably once in a lifetime to see water being let out of a dam in Australia
    by the way - your title is a great name for a band ☺

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  10. Wow! That is a lot of water. It is good that the drought is broken though. Maybe the weather will even out for awhile.

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  11. Wow, what great photos Helen, made me shiver, I am glad for you the the water is finally back up to what it should be after 10 years, but on the other hand I hope the weather improves for you soon!!!

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  12. The photographs at the spillway remind me of Niagara Falls!

    Great outing and great photographs, btw.

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  13. Hee hee nice one Foody! I was going to add that my dogs (especially Roobarb) would LOVE that flooded lake!

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