Watery Wednesday ~ The Mighty Murray Brought Low

The mighty Murray River brought to its knees by drought and
excessive plundering of its water for irrigation and water supplies
to townships hundreds of miles away.
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Barely managing a ripple.
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A lonely seagull surveys the exposed sandbanks.
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You can tell its normal width by the trees on its banks. Now
it is so shallow you can walk across where paddle-steamers
once plied their trade. The lakes further down its course have
dried up and its mouth to the sea has been silted over for
many a year.
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Click to enlarge if you wish.
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2sweetnsaxy hosts this meme. Click on the Logo to get your feet wet.

Watery Wednesday ~ Now You See It, Now You Don't

A good season, eight years ago, the pond (dam) in the park
is full to the brim and overflowing to feed our winter creek.



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Same pond six years later, dry as a bone. No habitat for
waterbirds to breed and certainly no swimming hole for our
visiting grandchildren.

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This is from last year with a pair of wood ducks hoping for a
sufficient food source to raise a family on.
At present, and we are in our rainy season, there is even less
water in it. It looks like we are heading for another green drought
when there is enough rain to green up the pastures but no run
off or deep watering to ensure the health of trees. We are already
in our eigth year of drought and a number of deep wells have dried
up. . .the times they are a changin'.
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All photos enlargee for more detail.

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Thanks to 2sweetnsaxy we can show off some water if we have it.

MY WORLS ~ Selective Vision

Milkmaids thriving in a long forgotten garden where long ago
a homestead stood.





















The sad remains of my erstwhile pride and joy, my spring and
summer flwer beds.

Drought can be devastating, it took two thirds of my garden,

trees, shrubs and all my perennials.

The large expanse of cut, dry grass in front of the few remaining

espaliered fruit trees, once was my thriving berry patch. Raspberries,

strwberries, blueberries and currant bushed, the joy of marauding

grandchildren. Now there is nothing there, even the cherry trees died.

From fifty years of collecting oldfashioned plants, striking

cuttings from old gardens before the bulldozers moved in,

nothing remains. Even the succulents are in a sorry state.

Now, I am too frail to replant and create a new paradise around

us and yet you may wonder that I post roses galore, floweing

bulb and a few other hardy survivors.

The simple explanation is selective vision. The Prof sees wrecker's

yards and landscapes bristling with power lines, while I am

enchanted by a lone magnolia peeping over a fence or a single

sunflower in the rank grass near a block of flats. The choice is ours,

we see the beauty or the beast and so I choose to show you whatever

little joy has unfurled its petals for my delectation and always have

something, no matter how small, for my camera to capture.

Even weeds can be beautiful, let alone my remaining

roses in full flight!

All photos enlarge for a bigger picture.

Thank you dear MY WORLD Team for still hosting this meme.

Nature Notes ~ The Halcyon Days of Summer

Our terrible heat waves seem to be abating, nights are a
delight of cool breezes wafting twixt open door and window
lulling us into peaceful and refreshing sleep.

Even this water lily I have managed to coax into its first
flowering after 3 years of suspended animation in a bucket
of water in the shade house to at least keep it alive
through the tail end of our massive drought.



Days full of blue skies and friendly temperatures to be enjoyed
while they last and my slowly dribbling hose keeping my rose
garden a joy to behold and a delight for the senses.

On a more sobering note, the Willy-Wagtails bred sparingly this
season. Our normal contingent of owls was conspicuous by its
absence. Early in summer one Mopoke called, decided this was
not a good place to be, and left. Surprisingly, with the dry seasons
we have had, there have been no plagues of field mice or indeed
any evidence of them. Hardly a wonder that the owls moved to
greener pastures.



In 'normal' seasons, when the Naked Ladies, Amarillis Belladonna,
grace us by their presence, the first autumn rain follows in two
weeks. No such luck this year though.... it is just uniformly dry.



To see how others are faring, click on the Logo.

Thanks to Michelle at Ramblibg Woods, we can enjoy seasonal variations
from all around the world.

Nature Notes ~ 2 Rain

Please ENLARGE, especially the landscapes to
appreciate the datails.



At last, like manna from heaven, the rains came.
So long awaited by the parched land and us.



Nature instantly reasserted itself with everything
bursting into leaf whether it was the right time to do
so or not. All that had survived the drought was doing
its level best to catch up after that long period of leafless
dormancy in summer, Roses are flowering two months
early.

I found this huge European wasp in the sink on a warm day.
European wasps are a rather nasty import here and have a
way of not just stinging once, but pumping their poison into one
repeatedly. This one was over an inch long.



The sustained rain changed the barren landscape
from this,



into the fields of Elyssium almost over night.

These Pansies having barely survived on sink water, were

af last getting a decent shower to wash off the accumulated

dust and give them a much needed wash through with

sparkling clean water.

Here's hoping for good follow up rains as well.

This meme is hosted by Michelle of Rambling Woods,

click on the Nature Notes logo to join in or visit the others.

SkyWatch ~ 35 Seasons Come, Seasons Go

Our dam in the park in a reasonably good year



not quite full but still fun for the g-children to dive
and swim in



for the last two years of our persistent drought, this is
what we have had to contend with. All our 5 dams were
reduced to cracked earth and the rest of the farm, gardens
and orchard suffered severely because of it, as this was their,
as well as the animals' water supply.



At last we have had enough rain to green up the paddocks
and make the weeds grow faster in the garden than I can
possibly pull them up, but there is a tiny puddle in at least
the dam in the park. When full, it covers the rung on the
diving platform.



Ever the optimist, I look to the skies and hope for more.

As indeed I hope that Mr.Linky is up and running!

To Klaus and the SkyWatch team, good luck with running

this, to now, so enjoyable meme.

TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ 26 Drought Survivors

Pleasr click the photos to enlarge...



Nerines by the Wool Room fence, being dormant in
summer and loving heat, performed like troopers!



Below, Podranea ricasoliana vine in our My Lofty
garden is a bomb proof survivor and, although parts
of it died back, still flowered.



Some unkillable Pampas Grass in the dell by a
disused saline well on the farm. You can burn it, you
can poison it, you can deprive it of water or hack it with
an axe but whatever you do, it comes out a winner!



For magnificent flowers around the world, click on
the Logo on the right.

Thanks to Luiz Santilli Jr. and his team, we have this
wnderful meme where we can enjoy so many flowers.

TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ 23 Autumnal Surprises.

All photos can be enlarged for a closer look.



Colchicum, erroniously also called the Autumn Crocus,
is totally unrelated to the Crocus which flowers in spring,
has proved yet again that life exists where it is least
expected. All the shrubs in this garden bed have
succumbed to our persisting drought, and still in our dry
and sere garden, this joyful emissary of hope appears.



All three clumps are flowering their hardest, feeding
bees and tiny butterflies alike where there is hardly
any other food available.



Wishing you all a Happy Easter, Passover or
just a little break in your everyday life.

Thanks to Luiz Santilly Jr. who initiated this meme
and to the whole team who make it such a success.

SkyWatch ~ 23 A Sad, Sad Sunrise

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Click to enlarge.

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Our country is in mourning.

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Loss of life climbing towards 300 from the fires in Victoria.

Hospitals full of burns victims.

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Queensland to the north ravaged by massive floods

and South Australia where we are, stricken

by drought.

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5 empty dams, some bore water left for the minimal core

of our animals and rationed rainwater for our two households.

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Another heat wave is approaching.

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Everything is tinder dry, should a repeat performance of

Ash Wednesday 1983 occur when we had our turn, we have

no water reserves to protect ourselves.

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Our hearts and prayers are with the Bush Fire victims in

Victoria and New South Wales and all those affected by the

loss of life in the Queensland flooods.

TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ 14 In Memory of my Garden

Please click on photos to enlarge for best effect.



This year there is no garden, no vegetables, no
flowers.... the drought has taken all....six years is
too much for any garden to take. We watered them
last summer with the last water we had, only to lose
so much to the concentrating salt content.

Neither our autumn, winter nor spring rains came.
We have just enough household rainwater to get by
on, and a mineral rich bore for the cattle.



Fuchsia 'George Risden' which survived until the
end of last summer.



Verbena, which normally lasts from two to
four years.



Penstemon, a strong and vibrant semi-perennial
and reasonably drought tolerant also succumbed.

My Roses, shrubs and trees are dead or on the verge.
Our predicted temperatures for this week are 41C +
or 102F + coupled with burning North winds.

If I sound a little despondent, it is because I am,
although on the bright side, I have 5 of my 150 Rose
bushes surviving on laundry water.

With thaks to Luiz Santilli Jr. for creating this meme
as well as Denise Castro and Laerte Pupo for making
it possible for all of us to participate.

Click on the Logo to see wonderful flowers around the world.

A Footnote to "Thoughts of Spring" (Below)

Click on picture to enlarge.

We are currently in our sixth year of drought.



All this to you may seem euphoric
but be assured, it's just historic
no blade of grass, no bird nor beast
can find a crumb, much less a feast.

Where all is dry and sere for years
the land is crying with my tears
the trees are dying where they stand
and drought grips hard upon the land.

The dams are dry,
the gardens dead
we wonder how we'll get ahead
when all there is to eat is dust
yet somewhere, sometime rain it must!