Discoveries after a flood: memories

Christmas disappeared in a bit of a blur for us but at least the flood waters subsided.

Although we were left with a pile of stuff to sort out. It had all been stored in the garage and now the time has come to find new homes for all of it.


Fortunately, very little was damaged but sorting through the bags and boxes was a trip down memory lane. I found my wedding dress (yes, I crocheted it - it was the 70s) - and found it hard to believe that I was ever that slim.

I crocheted this baby shawl when I was pregnant with my first son, most of it was done during the many long weeks I spent in hospital before his birth.


And my wonderful sister, Maureen, knitted this baby jacket. Maureen's husband was very ill at this time but I think she liked having some knitting to do while she spent time with him at hospital.

Discoveries after a flood: generosity

This is Tim, one of the many people who helped us deal with our flood. I later found out that Tim was exhausted from having worked long hours in recent days - but he didn't mention that during the hours that he spent working to prevent more water getting into our garage.


We are very grateful to the very generous people who came to our aid. Aaron, Tim and others who worked to drain the water from the yard. Tim who stayed to make sure we were out of further danger. My brother who also helped to stem the flow of water, stayed to help us move boxes out of the garage and then returned the following morning to help with the cleanup. Gemma who gave us photos she'd taken in case we needed them for insurance purposes. Debbie who mopped up water in our entrance foyer and the following day washed the dirty towels. Kate who spent hours spreading out photos so they wouldn't stick together and get damaged. Keith, Natalie, Margaret and Ron who gave up a relaxing Sunday to help us with the clean up.

It is inspiring to be on the receiving end of such generosity and it is reassuring to know that there are people we can rely on when the going gets tough.

I like water features but . . .

After nearly 10 years of drought, we have had a lot of rain lately. Yesterday evening our front garden was re-landscaped by a very severe storm. We were out at the time and returned home to find neighbours trying to get the water to drain before too much got into the house. Fortunately, only the garage was really damaged but we spent hours moving boxes out of the water and putting things out to dry. It's one way to tidy up the garage. However, the whole house is now quite muddy and needs a good spring clean. And we are very grateful to our neighbour, Tim, and my brother, Pat, who spent hours helping us cope with the worst of the deluge - and bucketing water away to prevent the garage flooding again.



Umm, where's the road?


Our house is on the left of this photo (out of view). We've never seen this 'creek' before - we've rarely seen even a puddle here. In fact, the tree in the photo is one of the few that survived the drought - most of them died from lack of water.