So

 Most Saturday mornings I go for a walk with my colleague, Alun, near Tilbuster Creek just north of Armidale. It takes us through beautiful but rather empty countryside far from traffic and other people. We almost decided not to go today because of heavy rain over the week and fear that the grass and gravel paths we take might be waterlogged. 

Well, we decided to take a gamble, so we met up at 7 am at the end of Blue Wren road and headed off on foot. It didn't take long for our fears to be confirmed. Here's Alun wondering how to cross a creek-bed that's normally dry ... we didn't even try!

And, as we expected, the main river, Tilbuster Creek was running high as these pictures show. The paths alongside varied from soggy to fairly dry, so we made fair progress albeit in very wet shoes and socks.

And here am I in my hippy gear admiring the scenery. By the way, it wasn't cold at 7.30 am. The minimum temperatures overnight just recently have reached as much as 19 C (66 F) because of cloud-cover. As you can see from this picture, the sky was a dull grey. Although we experienced no rain, ti started to pour as I drove home. We were lucky that we weren't just as soggy as our footware!

 

The entire journey lasted 90 minutes, but the countryside was empty apart from plenty of birds of various species. We met no fellow walkers, encountered no cattle - although we had to dodge a lot of pooh, and saw no kangaroos - although they're normally plentiful. Let me know if you'd like to join us on our next weekly trip!

AS

Memories of Spring

 Armidale usually has a vibrant musical calendar with many orchestral concerts during the course of a year. However, COVID-19 has severely restricted the number of concerts. So it was relief that our NSW government has recently removed lock-down provisions and opening up people gathering to listen to our great local orchestra. Even so, members of the audience had to demonstrate double vaccination to get in and then wear a face-mask.

Yesterday's concert was extraordinarily beautiful in terms of works performed and quality of playing. We started with a lovely rendition of Mozart's Die Entfuhring aus dem Serail (K484, 1782). Next came 4 concertos by Antonio Vivaldi written in 1720, each portraying serially Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each involves a solo violinist and the two young performers - Emily Thompson and Eliza Scott - were brilliant in their roles. The audience gave the whole orchestra and the soloists tumultuous applause after that performance, which - in my view, mirrored professional orchestras in our major cities.

After a short intermission, we reconvened for a great performance of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring. I adore this beautiful work, partly because I've explored much of the USA's Appalachian range and partly because it was composed in the same year as I and Dot were born ... 1945.

I was able to take a few pictures of the event  ... and even a few videos. However, I've tried uploading a few of the latter, but cannot get them to work. Maybe they'll work for you!

AS

Yet another flood

Armidale has just received nearly 75 mm (c. 3 inches) of rain in the last 3 days. That's amazing given that Australia is a relatively dry continent. Now the inland rivers making up the Murray-Darling system are in full flood. Likewise, the eastern flowing streams like Dumaresq Creek, which traverses Armidale, are also  in flood. I took an early morning walk in the rain today - armed with a large umbrella - to have a look at the creek, fully expecting it to be in flood. I was not mistaken - it's the largest of the 4 flood events we have experienced this year. This is what I saw:

The picture above shows a considerable volume of water flowing rapidly across Faulkner Street. Vehicles were prevented from trying to negotiate a route across the river.

Note how green the grass is after all the rain have in recent months! The last of the three pictures shows a large family of ducks having fun on the rapidly flowing water.

AS

Roaming New England

 I love exploring our region and, in the last couple of days, had some great experiences. I was out for a walk on Saturday when I came across a group of kangaroos. If you count them you'll see 5 on the other side of the fence, but there were several more in the background. This was privately owned hobby-farmed land, but I suspect the owners were delighted with their intruders!

Then yesterday Dot and I went to explore some parts of our region where we'd never been before. For those who know our region or would like to look it up on Google maps, we drove northeast up Rockvale road for maybe 20 km through lovely hilly countryside which was a lovely shade of green after lots of rain. Then we turned off on to Chandler Road which, to our surprise, was sealed despite being very narrow and only served a few very large-scale local livestock farms. Basically, we travelled eastwards for about another 15+ km through increasingly lovely, but almost empty, countryside. We admired the lovely views shown here - all taken from a single spot. In essence they look north-east, east, and south east. And in the distance lies the mountain range which is the highest point in Australia between the Snowy Mountains to the south and north Queensland just south of Cairns - a distance of 3,000 km apart! Point Lookout - the highest point - is 1564 m, or 5131 feet.

 

The immediate area in these photos is some of Australia's best grazing country. The rainfall tends to be high and reliable and many of the properties are huge - some around 10,000 hectares  (24,700 acres).

Shortly after taking these images we turned right on to Thorpleigh Road which ran through more grazing land for another c. 15 km. Again, we past through no settlements and only a few grazing properties. The quality of this road was rather lower than Chandler Road, with much of it unsealed gravel, but again the landscapes were lovely. Eventually we joined the lovely Waterfall Way which links Armidale to the coast. The junction was about half-way between Wollomombi to the east and Hillgrove to the west.

I'm glad we took this drive yesterday in quite good weather. Today our region is experiencing torrential rain. Since rain started Sunday evening we have received c. 51 mm of rain (about 2 inches). To the west of us, Gunnedah received almost 100 mm (c. 4 inches) in one day ... and Australia is supposed to be the driest continent! I'd like to ask my UK readers how many times a year do they get 1 inch of rain in a day.

AS

Wild Weather

The last 10 days or so have seen some wild weather in and around Armidale, rounding off what has been a fairly wet year so far. This time last year, we were in a serious drought and had major water use restrictions. This time we have streams running strongly, dams full, and - as I reported a week or so ago - parts of out town were hit by a tornado that seriously damaged some buildings at the University of New England and in town.

This post reflects on some of these events.

While out for an evening walk a week or so ago I headed for the Armidale Apex Lookout. Facing east I saw this large jet-black thunderstorm depositing yet more rain on our landscape. A few days later I went for an afternoon drive and looked at Malpas Dam, which stores Armidale's domestic water supply. As you can see, the dam is now full instead of the c. 30% capacity last year. Indeed, because of recent rain, water was being released for downstream flow.

And here's another view over the landscape c. 30 km north of Armidale. Normally, at the weekend, the dam would be full of yachts and other boating craft, but some reason I can only guess at the surface was devoid of any craft on this occasion.

Yesterday, a little over a week after our tornado, I went out to see if my office on campus at UNE was undamaged - much of the university now being opened up for business. Well, my office and building housing it looked fine. But imagine my consternation when I observed that several old adjacent mostly old timber buildings had either been destroyed or badly damaged. I sometimes walk past them, but was glad I wasn't around on the day the tornado hit us!

 

I wonder how UNE is going to recover from the damage shown here.

AS

Armidale Tornado

 This is my first post in perhaps 6 weeks. Forgive me for no posting BLOGS in which Dot and I are bored stiff by lockdowns and inability to go to interesting places.

However, yesterday we saw the outcome of an astonishing event ... the first tornado in Armidale during the 50 years I've lived here. On Thursday evening (14th October) we experienced a massive storm with thunder and lightening and powerful winds at about 10 pm ... just before we went to bed. Our electricity was cut off instantly and we raced to unearth our solar-powered torches which we keep charged for such events. And so to bed. 

Well, I rose at about 6.30 am as usual and noticed immediately something strange. There was still no electricity, without which we had no radio or television or internet. However, attention to my mobile phone yielded news that Armidale had, during that storm experienced a tornado. After a quick brekky I jumped in my car and headed for my University of New England office where I knew I'd get internet connectivity. That didn't work because UNE was shut down and people were not allowed to enter buildings on campus. But one thing I noticed was some destruction of timber buildings on campus - as shown below, so it looked like the tornado had gone through there. 

I searched for more evidence of damage in town, but couldn't find any. Then a good friend phoned me saying that north Armidale - where we live - also experienced damage from the tornado. Before, heading there, however, I went down town to see if all of Armidale was without electricity. However, the shopping centre was alive and well. Going home in dismay - why just us with no electricity ? - I noticed the traffic lights near us were out. I parked our car at home and went for a walk to see if any damage occurred. Well, the first thing I noticed was a nearby street shut down for a good reason. the roadway was adorned with broken power-lines - see below - which explains our lack of juice!

Walking a little further I saw some real damage - especially trees and branches scattered across gardens and roadways, coupled with occasional oddities like strips of metal hanging from poles.

After a while, I gave up searching for damage and I thought it mostly minor as most houses still had undamaged roofs unlike the wreckage we often see in Texas and states up the Mississippi valley. Eventually I found I could use my laptop free of charge at our council's HQ and investigated my usual c. 60 emails I use each day. That done, I headed home to discover that 14 hours after the tornado we had power back and life could return to normal .... well, sort of. It was only during the evening news broadcasts that I heard of much greater damage to property than I'd been able to find.  

So, early this morning I went for a walk around our district to see if I could find evidence of major damage. And I sure did! Turning down Watson avenue (no, we don't have a Sherlock avenue) I began to see roof damage - the next 3 pictures. If, you like go to Google maps and key in the names of the roads I mention.

Then I turned south into Worrell Place and the damage began to look more severe - see the next 3 pictures. This, by the way, is one of the routes I take in my regular afternoon walks.

I kept walking to a green corridor I also often traverse. This was an attempt to get a different perspective on the tornado's trajectory. Well, the next two pictures show a lot of tree and vegetation damage.

Turning off the corridor into Joan Plaza ... please don't ask me who Joan was ... I was stunned to see much more profound damage to property, as shown in the next 3 pictures. The street was crowded with council staff and local residents trying to clean up their neighborhood's mess and move treasured belongings out of their homes.

At the point where Watson Avenue joins Joan Plaza lies the house where a long-term university colleague of mine - Jim Walmsley - lives. I rang his doorbell to see how he survived the event, but there was no-one at home. Fortunately for him, the property damage was confined to the south side of Watson Avenue. Luckily, all Jim had to deal with was a few cut tree branches. I then walked back to Chestnut Avenue to see if any properties there received major damage - see the next 3 pictures. Well, there was a little roof damage to some house, but the main problem seemed to be fallen trees and heaps of guys with chainsaws were cutting branches and even trunks to put into a shredding machine that sent small pieces of timber into the truck shown in the next two pictures.

And here's my final picture of roof damage. This is a recently constructed large home and I feel sorry for the residents.

 Alas, tornado's are not known for their special selectivity. Well, let's hope that tornados are not associated with global warming and that we are likely not to have another one in the next 50 years, which I might survive given rapidly increasing longevity. 

AS

Early morning walk along Tilbuster Creek

 I and a good friend often go for early walks on Saturday mornings, with our principal destination being Tilbuster Creek lying about 4 to 5 km north of Armidale. We like it because there's a wealth of great scenery and wildlife and the tracks are interesting. It's also very lonely when we typically travel at c. 7 am.

Yesterday, we had to take a different route to usual because recent heavy rains had made many paths a bit boggy. Strangely, we sought the quickest route to the creek-lands because the tracks alongside were not water-logged. It was a lovely day - not a single cloud in the brilliantly blue sky and the temperature rose fast. So here I am in summer gear standing on the creek bank!

Something strange happened at this spot. For some reason, my glasses climbed our of my track-suit pocket and jumped on to the grass. I still have no explanation for their activity, but they were not noticed as missing until maybe 15 minutes later. At that point we retraced our steps to where the photos were taken and there they were innocently looking up at us!

Oh well! Out other excitement was looking at the river scenery and trying to spot one of the Platypus species known to inhabit the waters. Alas, they must still have been in bed. However, there was a lot of bird-life and the Kookaburra shown here attracted our attention. It also seemed rather interested in our presence.

And here are a couple of pictures of the creek. Please let me know  if you can spot  a Platypus!

AS

Armidale's early Spring washed away

Technically we're still in Winter, but towards the end of last week we had a taste of early Summer with some daily maximum temperatures exceeding 20 C, As usual, all good things come to a screeching halt and the last 3 days had a climatic wreck. Maximum temperatures plunged to + 6 C (43 F) and this was accompanied with gale force winds and heavy rain which yielded nearly 50 mm (c. 2 inches). Previous heavy rain over recent months had filled all the water storage dams around Armidale, so the heavy rain simply swept down Dumaresq Creek and generated even larger floods than I reported a few months ago. The river also seemed to be flowing faster. Have a look at these pictures:

AS

Early Spring?

 We've had some lovely weather in the last few days and the flowers in our garden adore it. Yesterday we reached 18 C beneath a brilliant blue sky, not bad for late winter at 1000 m above sea level. After all the recent rain, our shrubs, bulbs and other plants are having a lovely time bursting into flower.

Above we have a lovely string of daffodils along our driveway, most opened in the last week.

On the timber decking outside the back door we has this glorious collection of flowering pot-plants (above) and to the back side (right).

These exhibits are only a small fraction of the mass of flowers surrounding us right now. I go for frequent walks around town and the images are similar in most places. We're really looking forward for the formal start of Spring just two weeks from now!

Of course, in the middle of a virus lockdown, working in the garden is becoming an increasingly attractive prospect!

AS