Sunday at 5 o'clock

Sunday at 5 o'clock we ventured out to look at the backyard. It has been raining heavily all day and most of yesterday. Some would say this weather sucks, but Michael and I remember rain falling like this in Marysville, routinely, with an average annual rainfall of over 1000ml, most of it in the winter months where it rained every day (like England).

However today was different (for here), today it has rained since about 10pm last night and has barely let up. We went out to do the shopping at 10:00am, returning home at noon, and since then it has rained so constantly that we have just lived in it, around it, through it.

The water table has not had time to adjust to all this rain, as it has been on and off like this for the last 3 weeks. There is no drying out period, no wind, and the last time we saw the sun it was Monday last week. Therefore every shower adds -what it feels like - a million millimetres to the already saturated land.

We were quite excited to get out and see how the water transforms the property, though apparently there are people in WA who have been sitting on their house roofs for 16 hours waiting for help from a helicopter.

The water is around the house and has broken free from the dam and is running every which way into the spillway. It courses across the paddock and makes creeks where there were none. Most noteable is a dam of laying water, which has sprung up in a dip of the paddock. I started to wade into it, but only ventured about 5 m out, the bottom was muddy and I was not sure how deep it would get. One of the picture here is of a spider running up a piece of grass to escape the flood.

The pictures below show just a little of the flood on our land, and the movie at the bottom is the footage of the creek causeway that has cut us off from the world. Even Michael's new car will not tackle its fast running current.

We know that there are a lot of people affected by this way worse than us, but we have never seen anything like this before in our own backyard. We are in awe.

Flood and the last wedding of the year

Yesterday we worked the last wedding of the year. It was bit of a relief because I haven't been working on many weddings in the last 6 months, as my job doing both weddings and conferencing got too busy and we split the role between my assistant and I. However Erin left the job 2 weeks after I got back from France, which left me with three weddings to finish off for the year.

Each of the last 3 weddings have been totally bizarre, the first drank everything we had in our fridges and more and some how burnt tablecloths and had a food fight. The second was a couple I'd never met, as they had done all of their booking from overseas and arrived on the afternoon of the big day - we had to guess at colours and decor to suit their dresses. The third one last night should have been the most normal. After all, I'd dealt with them orginally last year when they booked and not much had changed since in terms of details.

Its all very well and good to assume, but you cant factor in the weather. It has rained in in QLD for the last week, and while some of the days have not had such heavy falls, there are a couple of days when it has just poured down for the whole day without any break. Out west and on the coast there are a lot of places either on flood alert or actually in flood. Here, while it has been really soggy and muddy and inconvenient to our activities schedule, we have not really seen the water get too high.

However yesterday was one of the major days of rain. As you can imagine, with a wedding this means a long day of traipsing through the wet and mud up and down the hill to our function room. Despite everything with the weather, the wedding went off ok and we got the 100 guests settled into the reception. I was so busy thinking about the wedding and ferrying guests around with umbrellas that I had not really taken any notice of how much rain we'd had besides the fact that it just wouldn't stop.

I mentioned to Michael about 8:00pm that I did not feel ok driving home alone as I was worried our creek might be up, and he has the fancy new 4WD, which remains relatively untested. We set off home at 9:o0pm and when we reached the creek we were very excited. In the dark the water seemed to rage across the road. We got across there ok and drove up to the dam and ford to see how much the overflow was running. The dam is fed by Western Creek, which runs throught the whole farm and down into Grandchester. It takes a couple of days to reach us, being fed by the run off from the hills through the property and then the dam, which is as big as a football field needs to fill up before it floods and spills down to continue the flow of the creek.

The dam over flow and ford were roaring water falls, we could hear it before we reached it. Its a bit hard to get pictures in the dark, so I went back this morning to get some more shots.

The ford just beyond our house that deals with the overflow of the dam. I used to think it was greedy that our dam caught all of the water of the creek and deprived people down stream, but today, looking at the water, I realised that it saves alot of flooding further downstream. Most of the area around the house has had extensive earthworks to create channels for the creek and overflow, before it hits the farms down stream. At least this way the creek causeway will never really get much higher than it is, the dam moderating the flood somewhat. The orginal property never having a dam, the creek would have just flowed through and across the paddocks and in flood would have probably even come up to the house.

The overflow runs parallel to the house and down to the creek that we cross to get to our front gate.

The overflow and ford are usually bone dry and rarely run, even after several days of rain.

The dam, the source of all this water (well the catchment really) and the overflowing section near the back. Looks fairly tranquil from this angle.

The creek causeway we have to cross to get to our house, usually dry. Not a huge flood in these pictures, the water was on its way up, but judging by the mud levels had been up and down all day.

The creek causeway again in day light, with a clear view of how high the water came up during the night.

Still looks a bit dodgy and my car would probably be sad if I tried to cross it.

Since the cows moved in

The week after we got back from France the cows moved back in. Not our cows, not the nice loving cows who are scared of me and happily move away at the drop of a hat, but the neighbour's cows.

The neighbour has a fairly significant herd which they have been rotating daily between our road side and a couple of very worn out paddocks. Quite frankly, it was a bit sad looking at them every day, which is why the farmer who manages this place invited them to put their cows on our part of the property for a couple of months in order to solve our grass problem (and therefore our snake issue).

The new cows all came pregnant, which was fine, we've had baby cows before and they are cuter than puppies. However, this lots have very badly behaved little calves. They like to spend most of their day under the house (despite the addition of more preventative measures). The noise is kind of like listening to a group of kids running around in the 1st floor of a 2 story house. That is, they thump and carry on and fight just like children.

It has started to become a real issue because in the last two weeks they have ripped out our satellite TV cable (our only source of TV) and our phone cable. They have also broken a window and every few days deposit another big poo at the bottom of our front stairs, just where it is convenient to get in the car. The worst part was the other night when I was home alone and knitting on the couch, very peaceful and tranquil, and a loud thump caused me to drop my knitting in fright and I swore, because I am not very good and dropped a stitch.

Their only saving grace is that unlike children, in a couple of weeks they will be too large to fit underneath the house (and they really are very cute when they are fresh and clean and little).

However all of our animals are a little eratic at the moment. The cats will only go outside through the windows, not the doors. The White Kitty climbed on the air conditioner outside our bedroom window while we were sleeping in the guest room and she couldn't get down, so she was stuck up there until 6am and scratched me to bits when I got her down.

In a separate incident White Kitty got locked in our storage room and waited patiently for 8 hours for us to come home from Toowoomba, sitting on Martin's TV box. Michael discovered her while he was in the toilet and saw her looking back at him from the room across the backyard while he looked out the window.

I had a friend drive me home from work last week and in the short time she was here she had to beep at cows on the driveway as they wre being stubborn and wouldnt give way, and dodge the poo using her torch. When she finally got inside our house for the first time ever, the green frog who lives under the sink was jumping around the bathroom and the Big Kitty brought in a mouse which she proceeded to eat on the kitchen floor. My poor friend squealed (which was hilarious) and I had to think back to only a year ago when all of these things would have startled me or made me think I was roughing it in the country.

However I still know I am a newbie when a brown snake climbs the front door of the reception area at work and I am too chicken to go out and help catch it (this afternoon).

St Aignan

Michael, the very essence of the bread buying man, with his compulsory 2 baguettes

Cooking our supermarche produce on the first night in St Aignan.

One of my favourite streets in St Aignan, maybe for the sign, maybe for the flags, maybe just for the colours, who knows.

Bridge over the Cher, later we found out that this house had been renovated by the same guy who did our house in the square. But it would have been noisy, right next to the bridge.

St Aignan from the park

The square with la Petite Boutique - our house for the week

Sunset over the square

More Fabulous Moments in France

Chateau Valencay - most pretty chateau that we saw in France. This was one we didn't mean to end up at. We went for an afternoon drive after the 'non French railway man' incident and 'world's biggest steak for lunch' and found that it was the one that captivated us the most. I would love to live there. I would love to work there - but only for the weddings. It was the most romantic spot we saw (note - still no ring in finger when we got home, hmm...)

Miss Lilly, who was our unexpected treasure in St Aignan. Where else can you buy a round for 8 people for 12.8 Euro? She spoke no English, I spoke no French (to the point of embarrassment and almost would have been ripped off for 65Euro if she wasn't so nice). We passed 3 evenings (I think) there, one with Ken and Walt and Douglas, the English man who renovated our St Aignan house and was hysterical with stories of the police.

St Aignan Place de Paix on market day. ie, the day we hightailed it out of there. The charcuterie man parked his truck inches from our front door and we sat absorbed through breakfast trying to work out what he was selling (from our breakfast table looking at the wrong side of his truck). St Aignan in the mist, with the church steeple and the markets, is like the apitome of unexpected in France. It was fab to be able to watch the croissant seller set up her wares outside our window, wait for her to get her coffee and tabac and then go 6 steps outside to buy a croissant (keep the change).

Our crappy Paris (the second time) hotel room. Smelly, noisy, down right depressing and disappointing, it had the best window to sit and gawk at passing traffic. This pic was taken while waiting for Jen to arrive (after 1 year apart). We also ended up with Kate and Chris who were unexpected (and hungover) and before we knew it, we knew half the hotel and all the staff.

The strike. Somehow on our third day back in Paris, we ended up at a cafe near Notre Dame, but on the other side of the river, watching the strike march (the first one) walk past. It was more like a stage show than a political exhibition. Music, performance, drums, singing. We sat for an hour an a half, the very first people passing us as we sat down and they were still marching past when we left an hour and a half later. Chris said he was impressed because Paris knows how to protest in style. He was less impressed with the 2 hour tourist bus to get home because the metro had stopped running.

Favourite Memories of France

The amazing Bascilica at Montmartre. We had seen this on the day we arrived back in Paris. There was some kind of concert on in the park on the grounds below the church and people were taking the 'lift' up there - the thing that looks like the scenic railway in the Blue Mountains. It was the most peaceful day we had in France. No traffic, unexpected treasures, cats on the tables in the restaurant. This view is from the commercial side of the square that we discovered by sheer chance.

The last night in France. Kate and Chris were broke and desperate (and full of lunch) by this stage, so we chose somewhere easy to eat, which was this Italian pizza restaurant around the corner from our hotel. The menu was extensive, prices were good and we had a lot of fun. It was the kind of last night hurrah you would want. Dont remember all that much, except that it had the kind of petite toilet wrapped around a pipe (literally) that you can imagine.

The Jetstar jump. I didn't capture it, Jen's camera did. We tried and tried. I counted afterwards that we went to the Trocadero 4 times to try and get a good shot. I was also hoping for some kind of 'special' to hit me. The dudes selling junk Eiffel Towers had really got me cranky and I was hoping for an inspired moment.

Michael and I in the scary pizza restauarnt in Montmatre - the one we ended up at becasue we were talked into it by the dude at the front door. Hilarious, but still a great night catching up with Jen.

My rose on our last night, from the rose seller who came into the wine shop where I was boozing it up at a wine tasting after the 3 bottles at the pizza restaurant. A quick dinner out for our last night, turned into an almost all nighter after Jen volunteered to go and buy the wine from our wine guy across the road who'd been selling us cold bottles with the cork pulled - thank you - all week. So about 10pm I go to find her, she's been gone for about 20mins. I walk into a full on wine tasting. We (the guys in the shop and the shop owner and a very nice guy called 'something french') have a very deep and intensive conversation about the soils in Burgundy and I am allowed to stay. I am offered the Japanese Whisky, but decline (novice spirit drinker). In the meantime, Jen has a teary and we ended up having the weirdest most bizarre conversation we've ever had. It was a good 2 hours of full on, only in Paris after a year apart kind of stuff (Jen - you are a fabulous friend). I still made it back to the wine tasting before they finished, though I passed on the scary follow up thing to the Japanese Whisky and went to bed. 3 hours sleep later, we got up to fly out.

Post France

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.