We got home yesterday from France. We've been travelling since 7:00am Thursday Paris time and finally got home at 4:00pm Saturday afternoon Brisbane time (all the other Eastern States have kicked in Day light Saving). I was overjoyed to be home, mostly because it is very quiet at our house and I can sleep without thinking about what the people in the room next door are doing at 4:00am. However I was still unprepared for the sun which was fully up when I woke at 6:00am this morning, jet lagged. After 2 weeks of France's 8:00am - 8:30am sunrise I was a little stunned.
The week before we left Australia, they burnt off in the area around our house. They told us that they were burning all of the land west of us, towards Laidley and it would be about 500 acres all up. However they didn't tell us when it would be, I just got a phone call one Saturday morning while I was at work saying they were outside our house and were going to start burning stuff.
My major objection to this is that they have not supplied us with nearly as many cows or camels to keep the grass down, nor have they sensibly slashed the grass from the rains we had in Jan / Feb. Therefore they ended up taking the burn to about 6m away from our house instead of the 50m as previously advised.
Our house is not very air tight (we have major inside wind patterns) and the whole house stunk. The night of the burn I got home and there were spot fires all over the hill, which was abit freaky, given that there was no one tending them. Everything glowed and crackled and there was no sleep to be had. When I woke up the next morning choking, my manager decided to put us up in the hotel for the night (great room - but another story). Anyway, I was seriously cranky about the whole thing as I have issues looking at burnt stuff that could have been avoided and for obvious reasons dont like the idea of fire much anyway.
So when we got home yesterday I was shocked to see how much the grass had grown (and pleased). Apparently, while we've ben away we had about 7 inches of rain. The causeways went under and everyone was sent home from work on Monday due to flooding. For the first time in 20 years they have had to let water out of the spillway of Wivenhoe Dam.
So now our issue is not the burnt grass, it is the abundance of grass and the damage that the severe winds have caused the house, bringing down one of our gutters. There is also a sizable crack over our front door from where the house has dropped from the rain settling on that side due to the gutter falling of.
I went for a walk up to our dam to see how full it was and the spillway was still running over in a constant stream. Last time it flooded, it roared, which was a little scary at night to come home and hear was sounded like gushing water in an canyon.
As I had picked up the kitties this morning, they have been needy meowers all day and followed me up there for a walk ( I swear, they are more like dogs every day).
The dam was only a few feet from the top of the wall, which was being controlled by the spillway but there were also signs of flooding heading up the side of the dam so I wondered how much rain we've actually had (before we left we had good rain, but the dam was probably down to 40%).
I snapped a few pics and the kitties and I revelled in the silence and calm. It has been a good few weeks, but I am so glad not to hear any motorbikes or smell any stinky cigars outside my window. I am not cut out for living in cities at all and am dreading when we next have to move as we will never be so lucky again to get a place like this.
While we've been gone they have hired a new GM (Grace has gone) and my assistant has resigned.
And where was Michael today during these adventures? The poor thing has caught some bug off the plane or from the food in the airport in Sydney and has been in bed sick all day.
