Dangar's Falls in flood

 I took a trip out to our gorge country today to see how all our recent rain has affected the river system and our gorgeous waterfalls. In particular, I headed to Dangar's Falls, which tumble vertically into a deep gorge and I was stunned by what I saw.

Have a look at these pictures. Here's the fast flowing water taken from an iron bridge over the creek near the car park. The latter was jammed with cars as people had headed like me to the spectacular falls 

This is the stream running hard over the rocky landscape above the falls.

And here's a picture looking the rapid stream flow heading down to the top of the falls.

This shows the torrent of water heading over the top of the falls - about the most water I have ever seen. There's a little lake at the bottom, which is better shown in the following picture.

The river then rushes in zig-zag fashion through the bottom of the gorge.

I have a video of the falls and friends and families are welcome to request it separately.

AS

NERAM art display at Wyuna

 We might now be well into Autumn, but yesterday was a lovely day with the temperature still around 22 C (72 F). Dot and I had received an invitation to go to a rural property at Kelly's Plains organised by the New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM), which is one of regional Australia's best galleries - if not THE best. I gather that the display of paintings, sculptures and some plants was being used as a fund-raising venture by the gallery and there were certainly lots of people present at this open air event. The property, Wyuna, has several historic buildings and is also these days used for rearing horses and teaching them show-jumping. But it also has lovely and picturesque gardens in which the art-works were displayed.

I sat down for a mug of coffee and a slice of cake right next to the old cart shown above, and couldn't resist taking a photo of it. Nice refereshments were avaiable for those attending the event.

One of the local private schools -The New England Girls School (NEGS) displayed handiworks presumably made by their students

I thought I'd taken pictures of some of the paintings and sculptures on display, but looking at the rest of the pictures suggest I was overwhelmed by the attractiveness of the gardens instead. 

For example, the were many models of animals like sheep modelled from wire ... but I cannot see here any in my pictures despite intending to display them!

Oh well! These look like 3 metal stumps!

Here's the main homestead.

And a nice garden shair!

Oh Well! That's it.

AS

Another Flood Event

 You may recall that I reported on Armidale's drenching rain at the end of February 2021 when we received something like 100 mm (4 inches) of rain over several days. Well, events have repeated at the end of March, which has been another dampish month. This time we received 80 mm of rain in just two days, this time in particularly heavy downpours. So we've had close to 400 mm of rain (or c. 10 inches) since the starrt of 2021, our best start to the year climatically for quite a while. As a result we've major flood events along Dumaresq Creek, which runs through town. In addition, our local dams are now full and we've come off wate-use restrictions.

The wonderful rain at the start of this week immediately generated the highest water levels in Armidale's creeklands that I've seen in years. And here are some images of the height and speed of water travelling through town. However, the first thing that caught my eye after getting out of my car to photograph events were these fungii growing around the base of a tree. Don't they look edible!

From this spot I case my eye over the raging water. Also notice how green our grass nowis as a result of extensive rain.

The following morning after the above 4 images were taken, I went on my usual morning walk and decided to revisit the creeklands to see how events were unfolding. Well, the water was higher and flowing faster. Here you can see the water rushing across one the N-S roads into town - the one we usually take. Not today, however!

This image looks westerly and upstreem from the elevated footpath across the creek, which was still quite usable.

Rotating 180 degrees to the left, this was the view downstream and you can see in the distance one of the few creek crossings now usable.

Now I am on the bridge just mentioned looking westward and you can see a hell of a lot of water. Fortunately Armidale is a hilly town, so no homes were flooded as far as I know. Helping to create this outcome is Armidale's land-use planning, which prevents home construction in floodable areas. As you can see from the picture below, the land to the right rises quite steeply away from the river bank.

I love such events as shown above, provided no-one is harmed and property is damaged.

AS

Armidale nearly drowns in a major flood event

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology forecast that we'd have a wet summer this year after the terrible drought of 2019. Armidale usually gets around 755.6 mm (29 inches) of rain per annum, but the 2019 figure was massively below at 306.6 mm (just 12 inches). No wonder we had heaps of bushfires destroying native vegetation and wildlife. Things turned around as we moved into 2020, especially towards the end of that year, and we recorded 973 mm (around 39 inches). That was the second highest annual figure in 22 years after the lowest recorded for that period the previous year! It was quite a good turnaround. 

So we started 2021 with high hopes of a verdant landscape and removal of all water restrictions, only to see disastrous rainfall in January. That is usually one of the wettest of months, averaging around 88 mm or well over 3 inches. To our horror, rainfall was well below average at only 34 mm (the second lowest in 23 years) and our garden was struggling with lack of water. February also lagged in rainfall for much of the month and we were getting edgy about keeping plants growing. But something remarkable happened in the the 4-day period February 24th to 27th. During the first 23 days of the month we recorded just 45 mm - or getting on for 2 inches, but then it started to pour and during those 4 days we received another 100.6 mm (or 4 inches). So instead of lagging monthly averages we soared to 145+ mm - c. 50% above the monthly average around 95.2 mm. This total is the 5th highest in the last 23 years. The picture below shows our garden's rain gauge with water at the 100 mm level for the first time ever ... but because I refused to empty it daily as usual. You can't read the numbers on the gauge, but please trust me that I'm right!

After heavy rain, Dumaresq Creek, which flows through the middle of our town, often floods quickly and, on this occasion, delivered the highest level and expanse of water I can recall in many years. Have a look at these pictures of our creeklands. Driving these high water levels was the dumping of no less than 31 mm in about 4 hours on the morning of Saturday 23rd February. That's well over 1 inch, or a daily rate of about 7 inches!

The ducks shown here were having a lovely time.

The waters have flooded Armidale's great bike track, which was unusable of much of its course.

The one thing missing from these photos is the hundreds of Corellas that have invaded our town. These large white members of the parrot family carpet the creeklands daily looking for food, but I guess it didn't hurt them to go a diet! 

AS

Bottles of Booze

 Dot and I have been rearranging our house to enable painting of walls in some living areas. In the process, I had to empty one place where we stored bottles of mainly spirits. I used to buy quite a few bottles of this that or the other while overseas or in some parts of Australia, but recent aversion to spirits has left many unopened. Here's a picture of the bottles extracted from one location in our house:

The list includes  Vicker's Gin (Australia - OZ); Cointreau (France (FR); Remy Martin Brandy (OZ); Benedictine (FR); 100 Pipers (UK); Shiraz Liqueur (OZ); Limoncello di Sorrento (Italy - IT); Tudor Royal Scotch (UK); Hennessey Brandy (OZ); Teacher's Highland Cream Whiskey (UK); Jim Beam Bourbon (USA); Chatelle Napoleon Brandy (FR); Grand Marnier (FR); Marko Dry Vermouth (OZ); Calvados Boulard (FR); BORZO Vodka (UK!); Drambuie (UK);  Maple Schnaps (Canada); Port (Portugal); and Licor di Leiti (Portugal).

Then I remembered that I hid a whole lot more bottles in my study ... mostly Scotch Whiskey. The list comprises: Ballantine, Bailey's Irish Cream, Tobermory, Langavulin, Glenmorangie, and Bushmill Malt Irish Whiskeys. In addition I have Doktor Vodka (Russia), Gota De Minas Cachaca (Brazil), and Sulwha Saki (Japan).

Anyone fancy visiting me for an extended booze-up? It might take a couple of weeks or more to clear the decks prior to checking in at our local hospital!

AS

New Year Fireworks 20-21

 Armidale might be a small town of c. 25,000 people, but it has a tradition of great firework displays heralding the New Year. And at 9 pm on the 31st December 2020 we collectively saw one of the best displays ever. Thanks to the absence of COVID-19 in our region a large audience comprising all age groups - and ignoring social distancing - crowded on to the Wicklow field, which forms part of our green corridor along the banks of Dumaresq Creek.

The cloudy sky ensured a jet black background, which made the displays all the more impressive. And, for 10 minutes, the audience gasped at - and applauded - the great aerial display paid for by the Armidale Regional Council. The pictures below are representative of what we saw - lots of different colours and configurations of the fireworks.

Because of the virus, organisers of the event decided to give the  displays greater altitude this year so that people could potentially watch them from the safety of their homes. This ploy didn't seem to work well given the massive throng of viewers clustered on the creeklands!

AS

First Park Run in 9 months

 I used to go for a Park Run every Saturday morning at 8 am, but that halted in early March because of COVID-19. Given that we had up to 200 runners and social distancing would be very difficult with that number of participants, the event has has been in abeyance until now.

So today I joined maybe 50 others on the first run in 9 months. Organisers offered two alternative routes, one 5 km and the other 2 km. I chose the latter because of lack of running practice over the longer distance and I didn't want a second round cardiac arrest. 

I was able to run half the distance and walked the rest, albeit at a fast pace - not bad for a 75 year old. I was first back for my category in record time, but only because I was the only performer to select the short route!! Here we are assembling at the start on a brilliantly clear sunny morning. Even at 8 am the temperature must have been around 19 to 20 C.

And here's a selfie. Apologies for the expression. I wasn't as fearful as I look, but I was looking towards the sun!

AS

Other great sites on Norfolk Island

 In my last post on our visit to Norfolk Island, I will focus on several the many other sites we visited and explored over our 5 full days there. Sometimes we made our way around the island in the hire car we had provided for almost the entire trip. On other occasions we were on guided tours. Both means of getting around were great. On one guided tour we visited a pretty church way out of town.

One evening we heard about a food fest down at the remains of the Kingston prison. It was a lovely and lively evening out with masses of people visiting the various ethnic food stalls and consuming their purchases at the tables and chairs provided.

On another occasion, using our hire car, we made it to the top of Mount Pitt, presumably named after the British Prime Minister in the middle of the 18th century. As the sign says, it is about 318 m high and just short of the highest point - Mount Bates. We had an excellent view over the whole island from this vantage point.

These following pictures show some of the views, including the island's international airport!

The island's Botanic Gardens lay close by and we explored them avidly.

On another occasion, we visited a lovely museum at Kingston that was home to one of the principal managers of the convict prison back in the early to mi 19th cecntury.

And here's a rear view of Dot inspecting the kitchen area

We sure did a lot in just a little time - all of it enjoyable.

AS