I like to go for long bike rides and yesterday afternoon I found myself riding just north of Duval High School, where Emily and Rebecca were students many years ago now. Looking east I noticed a considerable storm dropping rain over the town's eastern fringes and, illuminated by the evening sun shining from the west there was a stunning rainbow illuminating the sky.
When I ride I tend to take my mobile phone with me to summon help should I burst a tyre or meet with some other mishap. I grabbed it from its hiding place and took the first two of the pictures shown here, which really don't do the event's justice. The first shows the complete arc of illumination and the second focuses on the northern fringe and does the rainbow a bit more justice focusing on its kaleidoscope of colours.
A short while late during my ride I could see dark rain-bearing clouds moving in from the south and, not having any waterproof gear, decided to make a run for home. That wasn't so difficult as my route had placed me on one of Armidale highest elevations. Pedalling furiously I began to encounter rain and wished I had wipers on my glasses! As Em and Bec know, however, Erskine Street is very very steep just west of my home and I hurtled down down it at speeds reaching, say, 60 km per hour (37 mph). A car behind me thought about overtaking but fortunately had second thoughts as the in-town speed limit is actually 50 kph. Fortunately, (a) I wasn't booked for speeding on a bike and (b) I didn't fall off!
Reaching home in reasonably good shape, I noticed that the rainbow was still on display and took another couple of pictures from the timber decking on the eastern side of the house:
After a very dry and hot period towards the end of January, we need rain badly but yesterday's falls were spatially variable and our house largely missed out. And by 'hot' I mean that we experienced a succession of days with temperatures of 30 C (86 F) or more in January, despite being 1000 m (3280 ft) above sea level. By the way, some land around us in the New England region rises to c. 1650 m (5400 ft).
AS
When I ride I tend to take my mobile phone with me to summon help should I burst a tyre or meet with some other mishap. I grabbed it from its hiding place and took the first two of the pictures shown here, which really don't do the event's justice. The first shows the complete arc of illumination and the second focuses on the northern fringe and does the rainbow a bit more justice focusing on its kaleidoscope of colours.
A short while late during my ride I could see dark rain-bearing clouds moving in from the south and, not having any waterproof gear, decided to make a run for home. That wasn't so difficult as my route had placed me on one of Armidale highest elevations. Pedalling furiously I began to encounter rain and wished I had wipers on my glasses! As Em and Bec know, however, Erskine Street is very very steep just west of my home and I hurtled down down it at speeds reaching, say, 60 km per hour (37 mph). A car behind me thought about overtaking but fortunately had second thoughts as the in-town speed limit is actually 50 kph. Fortunately, (a) I wasn't booked for speeding on a bike and (b) I didn't fall off!
Reaching home in reasonably good shape, I noticed that the rainbow was still on display and took another couple of pictures from the timber decking on the eastern side of the house:
After a very dry and hot period towards the end of January, we need rain badly but yesterday's falls were spatially variable and our house largely missed out. And by 'hot' I mean that we experienced a succession of days with temperatures of 30 C (86 F) or more in January, despite being 1000 m (3280 ft) above sea level. By the way, some land around us in the New England region rises to c. 1650 m (5400 ft).
AS
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