Gifts from the clouds

After a few really hot days "something" had to give - and it was both the temperature and the dry that "gave". For absolutely months now my patient husband has been watering my garden morning and night. We have had precious little rainfall since June - just a couple of days when we had showers. That changed this morning. I had just cleared up the driveway after covering it with a thick layer of grass and weeds, pulled out of my gardens when I chanced to look up and noticed the black sky creeping up. Cleaning up was put into high gear and the garden tools stored back in the garage by the time the first rumble of thunder happened. By the time I had showered and changed the rain was pelting down.

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I suddenly remembered my son's washing on the line and raced out to rescue it and put it in the clothes dryer - the fine spray from the impact of the rain on the ground had saturated everything! I came upstairs and spotted our friendly lorikeet looking very bedraggled on the cage over the food dished - the dishes were all filled with rainwater so held nothing of interest for her.

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I took pity and put a small dish of raw sugar on the table - about half a teaspoon full - and looked out later to see the bird and her mate, tucking in with ecstasy written all over them!
A look out the back door and I had to grab the camera again, our rainwater tank was full and running over.

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Not only was the rainwater tank running over but the roof guttering was running over too.

1/20 sec   F 5.6   ISO 200

One thing I have forbidden my nearly 72 year old husband to do is to get up on the roof to clear the gutters! We have a two storey house and that is a long way to fall.
So we have had enough rain in one hour to fill our water tank, top up the swimming pool and wash the dirt and remaining weeds off the drive. We have also had enough rain (33mm in one hour) to ensure that we shall have green grass for Christmas - and lots of noise from mowers on Boxing Day! Its "all good" as my son is want to say!
AJ

Last day of the Canberra Convention

The last morning of the convention was really (and I mean REALLY) interesting. Firstly we had a young man speak who talked about the cameras he used for different video projects. This was of major interest to all the “tech heads” especially when Patrick Gallagher talked about the really expensive high definition cameras and the little toy that has become so useful for adventurous video makers, the Go-pro (or some such name!!!!) The camera is tiny and can be strapped to bike handle bars or the toe of a surfboard or on the dash of a car that is dropped from a crane and it will survive anything that it faces. Several speakers through this week use one for awkward or dangerous angles.

After talking about the cameras used for short film making, Patrick went on to talk about the cameras that were used in Parliament for recording proceedings in the chamber. He is one of the camera operators and they work from an office below away from the proceedings and controls eight cameras with joysticks and buttons to change feeds from one camera to another.

The second speaker was one of the coordinators of ABC Open. This is an exciting project that is less than two years old and is in 45 regional centres around Australia. The program is aimed at both teaching people who have never used computers, cameras or the internet how to use them by giving projects and the means to complete them. The spin off is that there are now lots of fascinating stories of real people that can be accessed by the people who created them and the rest of the world too. I must find the web site and take a closer look at what has been done there – it all sounds so exciting that I want to be involved myself! I believe the address is http://open.abc.net.au  but I will check and edit this link if it is incorrect.

Colleen was waiting for me when the sessions were over and after lunch and farewelling as many people as I could we packed the car and set off for Taree. Of course we managed to strike the peak hour traffic but it was never stationary so although it was a long trip we made base by 8.20pm (we left about 2.00pm) After checking in we raced into town to the Chinese Restaurant we so enjoyed on our first stay here and luckily found it open.

We took a photo of ourselves as we waited for the meal to be cooked!

 Cheesy grins to a hand held camera from AJ and Colleen

The food was brought back to our motel room – which again is the same room we had when we first came through Taree! Room 16. There were real plates and metal cutlery so we dined in style! The family are all eager to have us home! The phone has been running hot! It took us eight hours to get here from the Gold Coast so I guess it will take the same length of time to get back there. That is including time for stops along the way – and lunch. It has been a great week.

AJ