What a week this has been. Putin has set the world on a catastrophic path. I said to my husband that he had been born as World War II ended in 1945 and hopefully this does not mean that now he may be going out to another world war. I can’t help but feel down about it. Tearful in fact. We already have Afghani people starving and fleeing their homes and now we have Ukrainians let alone those who were already suffering natural disasters, pestilence and war. There was a movie on television the other night called The Road. I didn’t watch it. I couldn’t. An apocalyptic narrative. I read it some time ago (book by Cormac McCarthy) and thought then that I could see the events depicted happening. Worth reading if you haven’t already. This was pre pandemic, pre Putin, pre our removal from Afghanistan and now I fear it is even closer to the reality we find ourselves in. I just hope I’m wrong. What are your thoughts?
I have probably been lucky that I haven’t paid as much heed to these world events as I may otherwise have done. We woke to water lapping millimetres from our door Thursday morning. The pool was overflowing and the rainfall massive. We couldn’t empty the pool as it used the same drain that the stormwater used. At 5am I rang the plumber. He had someone to us by 8.30am. In the meantime I attempted to dig a ditch to drain the water but the mattock was so heavy and the tree roots so strong I was basically ineffective. I tried bailing the pool but one bucket at a time was going to make little difference. It took the plumber 4 hours to clear the drain. He had almost given up when suddenly a fountain of water sprang up draining into the street where before it had been a small stream. The water on our back patio receded and Roger and I breathed a sigh of relief.
We hadn’t reckoned on a monsoonal low hovering overhead on Friday leaving us to wake again to flooding that was trying its hardest to enter the house. Again the pool was overflowing and now the back garden was so flooded that it was draining soil into the pool and the pool pump could not be used because it had suffered from water on the electrics causing it to short the entire house when we tried to use it. All day we bailed around the pump. I carried the buckets to empty them . We built a dam wall to prevent water getting to the pump and by mid afternoon we miraculously managed to start the pump and drain the pool to a low point. Roger was so tired by this time that he forgot to turn the valve to the waste off and although the pump was no longer running we found the pool had drained to the lowest it could.
This turned out to be lucky because overnight a tropical low formed off Fraser Island and slowly headed south giving us another sleepless night as the torrential rain battered down and again caused flooding. Roger went out at 4 and opened the valve to waste thinking it would again drain. It didn’t. By 5.30am we were almost floating away, the pump worked for half a minute before shorting the power. Luckily this was enough to get the free drainage happening. We worked all day trying to get it to go, trying to bail water, trying to do anything but all to no avail. If it rains again tonight we may go under. Luckily I think it has now passed us and hitting the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane.
In reality we were the lucky ones. The flooding was massive all over the council area. I took the dogs for a walk around the canal areas of Noosa this afternoon and although the houses here didn’t flood it shows how high the water came. Never have I seen the canals break their stone walls. With over a months rainfall (around790mm) in just a few hours the flooding in areas was much worse than this and sadly 5 people have drowned.
I really am a bit depressing today and I apologise. I hate being negative but some weeks wear you down.
I did manage to book the train trip for our holiday. Four days on the Savanahalander heading west from Cairns into really isolated country. We have our train seat but are waiting for confirmation of accomodation which in those parts are scarce. Roger is starting to get a little nervous as to whether we have taken on more than we can manage but he doesn’t want me to change our itinerary at the moment.
I am struggling to get the posts out on the day I put them down for so I am going to alter that goal. Take a bit of the pressure off me. I will post three times a week and the posts will be as specified however they might not occur on Mon Wed and Sat but other days of the week.
We spent Wednesday sorting out Roger’s blood results. That was one good result of the rain. I was surprised just how long it took us but I guess he has had a lot of blood tests and many are repeated multiple times so we managed to decrease our paperwork and now have them filed so they can be accessed easily. It has spurred me on to clean up other paperwork and I have managed to get Toastmasters filed into easily found sections in the filing cabinet. That makes me feel good. Do you get a feeling of achievement when you get clutter organised?
Due to the amount of rain we have had I think it is only right to depict that in my Flower of the Day for Cee and also in my PPAC for Marsha. The public art this week comes from Maryborough. The home of the Mary Poppins author P.L.Travers. The statue was not in the least bit surprising to see but the traffic signs were not expected.
How was your week? Better than ours I hope. Would love to hear. Sadly, it has just started to rain again. Keeping the fingers crossed. There is nothing else we can do.
Take care everyone. See you next week if not before.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
Difficult to stay up with so much caving in around us. Glad you are going to get away. Something to look forward to.
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Yes I think it is important for us all to have something to look forward to. Nice to see you VJ.
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I wish you could send all that rain to our drought-stricken southwest! I remember bailing out three feet of water in our basement with buckets during one monsoon rain storm when we lived in Evanston, Il. Luckily we had put everything up on shelves so it wasn’t destructive.
With regard to Ukraine, I don’t think the people there are going to collapse in front of Russia. Putin has taken on more than he can handle and I hope the world responds to his mania.
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Glad you didn’t have damage Noelle. Floods can be a messy business to clean up after them.
I hope you are right re Putin. From the coverage tonight it sounds as though you could be and things aren’t quite going his way. I have to say I have been very impressed with Zelenskyy’s handling of the situation. So many leaders would have been on the first plane out.
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I knew you were getting a lot of rain, but wow. Glad you guys are alright 😀 Stay dry.
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Would have preferred to be on zoom with you Cee rather than trying to deal with our water crisis. LOL. Keeping the fingers crossed that the rain has almost left us and now moved to Brisbane. Brian will be getting it next.
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I just saw today’s news reports from flooded Noosa , I hope you and Roger are ok , you certainly didn’t need the added stress . Take care and always thinking of you from a slightly dryer Sydney.
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Hi Kaye. Getting there. You’re right. We didn’t need it. It has been really tough on Roger as he is so fatigued already. At least the rain has moved south and we are just getting showers now. Things are looking brighter. Take care.
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You’ve certainly been through a lot Irene! I take my hat off to you! Although we’re also getting torrential rain, and yes, the pool keeps filling up, our house is situated high enough that we haven’t as yet, (fingers crossed 🤞🏻) experienced flooding.
Not to put a dampener on the situation, but what happens if the storms continue when you’re away?
Love the Mary Poppins’ cross-walk photos! I’ll have to go to Maryborough just to see them.
Do you know why Helen Goff used P. L. Travers as her nom de plume? Perhaps for privacy!
All the best from ‘where is the sun?’ Sydney. 🌂☔️
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Hi Wendy. If ever we buy another house one criteria will be to have a pool that can overflow without a pump required to do it. I think it will be months before it is right to swim in again. Keep those fingers crossed. you don’t want to experience flooding.
I don’t know why she used a pen name. Perhaps she didn’t want people to know she had written it.
Hope this storm cell doesn’t move down your way. Sounds as though you are getting enough rain without it.
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Well shared ! Loved to read it! Thanks for sharing ❤😊👌💕
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Thanks Priti. Lovely to have you come visit.
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It’s my pleasure 😊👌stay blessed ❤💕
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Irene, I think you and Roger need to change your last name. What a mess! And here we are over here in the high desert and in CA, a semi-desert so desperate for rain. If only we could share. If humans could spend their time figuring out things like that instead of going to war, taking human lives, and ruining buildings, roads, we would be so much better off. I wish you a better week this week. Lots of love and prayers for you and Roger.
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Thanks Marsha. I agree with you entirely. I’d love to share some of this water with you. We appreciate the love and prayers.
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Carol, the Eternal Traveler sent me a video of how fast the water is moving where she is. It’s so scary. Take care, my friend.
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Thanks Marsha. North and South of us fared much worse than we did although we did have massive rainfall I think most of us here were let off lightly. You take care also Marsha. We live in turbulent times at the moment.
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We do live in turbulent times, Irene, and the weather is not minor in your neck of the woods, but it’s much better than the Ukraine. We had a delightful exchange student in Woodlake from there a few years ago. He wanted to be a movie star and was very sad at being placed in Woodlake, about 4 hours from movie star action. Nonetheless, he spoke at Kiwanis and various other organizational meetings. He spoke of the Russian relationship and at the time did not express animosity against the Russians. He was so polished, funny and interesting, we knew he would be a star. I hope he lives to be one.
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I too hope he survives all this. I feel for all the innocent people tied up in all this – it is out of their control. I don’t think that the people of Russia or Ukraine held any animosity to each other and I’m sure that many in Russia are also struggling with what Putin is doing. I don’t know how this will end but I hope it is soon with few casualties.
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I agree. It is very upsetting.
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Oh wow, that raindrops and flower is just beautiful. Nice meeting you, Irene!
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Thanks Teresa. Lovely to meet you also. Popping over now to meet you and your camera.
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😍
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