Monday, December 12, 2011

GONE!

Yesterday thunderstorms rolled across from the west sometimes passing to the north and some to the south and a few passed over us. By mid afternoon a line of storms approached that looked like they meant business. One storm was coming from the west and another from the north and the weather radar showed that they would meet right over us. And they did!
Lightning leaped all around us, the thunder crackled, crashed and roared echoing around the horizon. Then came the rain in torrents gushing from our tank overflows, followed by the wind which howled, lashed the trees and shook the caravan. To top it all of next came the hail. The lorikeets and king parrots clung grimly to the branches of the trees, facing the rain and wind, a study of endurance.
It was all too much for Cockey and he jumped off his appointed spot and hid beside the bed. The dogs, however just snoozed and lolled around like nothing was happening.  The wind drove the water under the roofing sheets and we had towels and buckets and pots catching the drips.
The storm went as quickly as it came and left a deposit of 50mm in the rain gauge. Quick phone calls were made to neighbours making sure everyone was OK. 
Rain showers continued throughout the night.
This morning dawned relatively clear and the humidity levels shot up as the sun climbed higher in the sky. Jim went to check the roads for fallen trees. There were quite a few down and many branches blown off. It wasn't until he started back to the house that he realised that the glass panel - our 'Night Spirits Totem' was gone, a victim of the ferocious wind and hail. In its place were thousands of tiny fragments of the toughened glass scattered like diamonds among the leaves.Perhaps the storm was releasing the spirits of the bats that were encased in the glass, sending them back to fly under the stary dome of the night.

On the other hand, with all the mining going on at the moment, including a gold mine about 50 kilometres from us, not only is there "gold in them thar hills", but I was thinking of starting a rumour that there are diamonds as well!



Friday, December 9, 2011

Where's Channel 2?

They have been warning us.
The switch-off of the analogue tv signal would start in December in the Wide Bay area. 
We have been receiving digital signals on our little indoor antenna, except for channel 2. Auntie obviously does not have the oomph of SBS and the commercial channels so we settled for spotty analogue channel 2.
Well the date kinda snuck up on us and so on Monday, channel 2 vanished.
Well today we trecked into Bundy and got ourselves a big-ass fringe area antenna.
Lotsa pointing it this way and that and now we have 16 high definition digital channels!
The feral fossil channel surfer is in 7th heaven!