Wot a wet day!

We were awakened through the night with the sound of water running into the swimming pool - this only happens when the rain is heavy enough to run down the guttering and into the bypass that we have set up that allows the rain to top up the pool.

The sound of water falling on to water has a devastating effect on me which meant that sleep was over and I had to "go for a walk"! It rained steadily all night long and bu nine o clock we measured 55mm had fallen. That, by old measurements, is two inches of rain. A good fall of that wet stuff!

But it has continued all day long since then and it has been a good excuse to sit in front of my laptop and type and collate.

This evening we are supposed to get all dressed up and "go out" but it looks like we shall be dressing in practical gear rather than decorative! We are off to see how two of my videos fared in a local Video competition. I am not really a competitive person but I allowed myself to be persuaded to enter this competition! It will be interesting to see the videos that my two are up against. Maybe I don't stand a chance at all - but that truly does not bother me at all. I know that the videos I have made have been received well by the people I have shown them too thus far and that is what matters more.

While there is still enough light to see outside - it has been grey and dismal all day and what light there is will be fading soon - I took a photo from this room across the shade house and looking across the neighbour's land. The water from the creek has crawled onto the lower section - but it has been up and down a few times today so we shall not be having major flooding problems. As long as the water can get away when the rain eases it means that all is well.

f/5.6 1/13 sec 22mm ISO200

The second photo is taken across our own back yard looking from the veranda where I feed the birds.

f/5.5 1/20sec 42mm ISO200

I heard the familiar sound of a bird colliding with a glass window and went to investigate. Byron was at the ready to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. (He tried it once - and the finch drowned!) Fortunately there was no little body stretched out on the tiles so Byron's assistance was not needed. But seeing how the birds had returned to scrape the dish for any seeds that might have been missed this morning I retrieved my camera to keep a record. The lorikeets are not really seed eaters - they will happily eat sunflower seeds until they burst (I only give them a few so they don't do themselves damage) but the small grain is for the finches and thanks to the rain these tiny birds are showing no fear of the much larger lorikeets. I think there are two varieties in the dish - the double bar finches (they have several common names) and the red-brow finches. Click on the photos to see a larger version.

f/5.6 1/15sec 52mm ISO 200

I have a pot plant garden on my veranda too and a pair of lorikeets had made themselves quite at home roosting cosily side by side on the branch of the potted tree nice and dry under the veranda roof!

f/5.6 1/8 sec 78mm ISO 200

AJ