Even more bloody rain

 Well, since I last posted, for a few days it did look as if the rain had finally decided that Ragnarok was off the cards, but no, we've had a week of soaking drizzle alternating with sudden violent storms that bubble up out of nowhere.

During the dryish spell I did manage to cut the grass and do a little weeding, but that was about it.

Since then, gardening has consisted of emptying pots and trying to save plants from either drowning or being battered to nothing by the rain.

Still we're hanging in there.

Yesterday, Friday, we even managed a damp walk up the hill out of town through the old gold workings in the historic reserve. Very wet and muddy, but the native plants (and a few garden escapes) are in bloom, making it unusually pretty.

And, let's face it, despite the wet, it was a pleasure to get out and breathe fresh air.

Other days this week were not so good. Tuesday night saw a pounding storm that caused all the already fast running creeks to turn into wild brown torrents, with the creek through town, normally a placid trickle, breaking its banks in places.

Wednesday is normally my documentation day down at Chiltern, but I had doubts I would make it.

On Tuesday night, the local SES Facebook page was warning that there were tree trees down and water over the Chiltern road in places, including the major creek that feeds Woolshed Falls, 

The following morning though the rain had subsided to a fine mizzle and I thought I would try and get there, if only to check for leaks in the old building. While I planned to do a full day, I was also prepared to abandon ship if the storms came back.

Getting there, the twisty bit down through the historic reserve had a lot of loose gravel and dirt over the road in places where it had washed down the hill, but the bitumen was more or less intact, and when I got to the bridge it was open, even though it had clearly been under water. The same for the other, more minor, creeks in the national park.

Out of the park the road was not too bad, though there was a tide mark in the car park at Chiltern showing where the creek had overflowed.

Needless to say, I parked above the tide line in case it started to rain again and the creek suddenly rose.

In the event, there was no serious rain until after dark, meaning I got home without incident.

The next day I was scheduled to give a talk on my work at Dow's to the local U3A group. And of course, half an hour before the heavens opened. People arrived with tales of having to pull over because their car wipers couldn't cope, and needless to say there were some no shows.

However the talk went well, people were interested and given it's been six, seven, years since I've done a preso, I was quietly pleased not only with how well it went, but also how easily the old presentation skills came back.

I was going to run the preso off  of either my old Yoga or my work Thinkpad, but I realised at the last minute that neither had a standard HDMI connection - one of the hazards of using recycled machines - so I ended up using the little Lenovo I bought last year, which did a stellar job. I'm consistently amazed at just how good such a basic machine is despite its lack of grunt.

The only problem was that there was no network in the seminar room (or more accurately, there was a network, but I didn't have a login to it), but I'd had the good sense to download the presentation to local storage in advance, so things just worked.

Today, while overcast, it's not actually raining. I'd like to get on with some weeding but the ground is simply too bloody wet. Hopefully, if it stays dry tomorrow, I might manage to get something done ...