... and floood with that ?

it's my typing which is errattic, not my spelling.

Wednesday 01 December 2010 08.04 pm

the 9 am ABC radio news (Claassic FM version) had as a minor story residents of Central West NSW villages affected by flood : Georges' Plains evacuated and nearby Perthville sandbagged.

These are very own own back way villages which we would have driven through en route to Canowindra (think carefully before you say it out loud – it's "Ka nun dra" : they'll think you're a German paratrooper dressed as a nun*) on Friday morning, to stay for two nights for the Young Cherry Festival.

Now, 09.32 pm after reappearance of coq au vin (darker, drier) and with drumstick classique coming to room temperature at bedside, the lovely folks at telstra are playing merry hell with modem: now 2g connection, now unconnected, now back to normal. maybe I haven't told them how much I love working with them. No one's offering me any NBN. I'd love it.

didn't expect this to affect me, however down hill through Raglan and straight into slowly moving traffic backed up past Littlebourne Street (road from O'Connell, Tarana Valley and Oberon ie our back way to Bathurst) and fruit stand.

slowly across road between Bunnings area and town; no sign of horsies who usually live there; flood water up into centre lane, traffic driving on stripy painted median area.

all under police control with traffic cones. late into Bathurst; usual retail scramble ie Discount Daves, coffee stop in Keppel Street (today 20th anniversary of BRAG building), Woolworths, kitchen store, Harris Farm, Dick Smith, Aldi, Post Office, ABC Shop (in local bookstore in Howick Street).

Later part of this was to background rumour that Great Western Highway had been closed at 3 pm by flooding at Kelso and that road through The Lagoon and road to Eglinton (thence Turondale/Sofala onto Ilford and back south via Castlereagh Highway [this is road to Mudgee in other direction]. asked each person I dealt with and got different answer but all agreed Kelso (Evans) bridge closed and road to Eglinton closed (there is a road from Eglinton to Kelso which would allow me to come out on GWH at lights at Kelso pub, a few hundred metres up from flooding)[called Eleven Mile Drive].

contemplated either staying overnight at motel in Bathurst or driving to more salubrious Orange.

finally ended up in McDonald's car park watching traffic very slowly moving in direction of Lithgow; rang NRMA Bathurst office who said they didn't really know and gave me RTA Road Closures 131700. rang this and listened through menus to Western NSW report with no mention of Macquarie River, at end offered option of operator, got quite quickly to operator, who read me a notice about Bathurst they had just received which stated that traffic was going through GWH in two lanes but with severe delays (could see this for myself).

drove out of car park, into lower George Street and went until I found end of queue just in from roundabout where Gordon Edgell (yes Edgell's comes from Bathurst) bridge traffic enters town. Edgell bridge is low level and was well under muddy swirling fast moving water and many inhabitants of Bathurst out taking photos from higher up in riverside park. got back into queue about 03.57 pm. a bit later truck cut in from side street and had logo and frequency of Bathurst radio station on back. had been listening to what I gradually realised was station in Orange so tuned into 1503 AM (had been on FM) and got little bits of news. obviously flood levels were going up and down around the town. eventually, about 4.45 pm, was onto GWH driving through flood waters which were over road (police at side watching) when radio said Bathurst Regional Council and police were urging motorists to use Eleven Mile Drive, which had reopened, as GWH alternative. should have trusted instincts that Elginton would still be reachable and road to Kelso open.

all this with fairly sunny skies and temp in car reading 29 C. traffic to bathurst backed up to Mobil Service Station in Raglan. back up into hill country. grey misty cloud returned around Meadow Flat. temperature down to 16 C. on to Rydal Road and fog from just after Martins Road, temperature down to 14 C. back to Hampton at 05.44 pm, foggy and 12 C. aparently rain had stopped mid afternoon but no sun.

road at Kelso must have been fully closed at some point; radio said that at one point in afternoon, traffic Bathurst bound was backed up to Glanmire which is about 5 km east of Raglan on GWH and is where GWH descends from mountains for run across plains to Bathurst, about 15 km west.

now question of Canowindra/Young trip. flood warning for river at Canowindra. motel looks at river and is called Riverview. bridges at Canowindra to Cowra and into town from Mandurama, selected route, are low level. may be accessible via Orange Grenfell Road around west side of Mt Canobolas. worried about Canowindra/Cowra/Young route on Saturday morning as Lachlan River (Cowra on) is also affected.

ho hum. much telephoning in morning.

Madam Head Gardner wants much staking and tying tomorrow, as owing to rain there is an outbreak of droop amongst plant community.

ho hum. this is how days go.

and so to bed at 10.20 pm AEDST.

* did any German paratrooper's dress as nuns ?; surely their boots would have given them away :: Lobb hob nailed versus Hermes button ups? and Hugo Boss versus Lanvin for robes. a quick google says not; just a June 1940 canard; however in June 1944 the invading Amis in Normandy were confused by the different costumes of the various nunly orders.

Greening, greening, gone

Today we drove to Orange via Oberon, O'Connell, The Lagoon, Perthville, Georges Plains, Newbridge, Blayney, Millthorpe and Lucknow (aka "the back way").

This is mainly a very pretty rural route with roads in average to good condition – no unsealed roads. It's all signposted (ie to the next town) although there are some sharp turns.

We are just past the greenest time of the year at the end of spring, with many yellow, purple and white flowers on the roadside.

The road over the high(ish) country from Newbridge to Blayney is my favourite, with rolling fields full of cows and sheep with many calves and lambs. (The return direction from Millthorpe to Blayney is pretty good, also).

Some of this country will eventually appear in my slowly emerging paintings (I have the lost and found again Sennelier HP watercolour paper, back at three times the price, I have paints in many hues both opaque and transperent, I have brushes, I am composing images to photograph as I drive by. It's going to happen Real Soon Now. Truly)

[I'm trying to upload pdf of the route map, badly cut by me from Google Maps, and Blogger is beside itself, so have attempted to re open Photoshop CS2 to convert pdf to jpeg #@$$%*(&^% ... unhappy Photoshop, a curse on blogger. A Great British Menu Friday night judgement break is indicated.] I think closing Firefox was part of the solution. And Blogger doesn't like pdf's.

The lost point of all this is that we are already at a turning of the seasons, between high spring and high and dry summer (the driest time of year in these parts) and the roadside grass is turning red/yellow/brown and we won't see this much lush abundant green until October 2011.

I had only known this area as green and lush and was surprised to arrive here on 22 January 2010 to collect keys to find a lot of brownness. Don't know whether this will happen again, as we are in an La Nina oscillation and have had very wet autumn, winter and spring, running about two weeks later than Spring 2009 by my estimate (based on when trees have come into flower).

I don't think that there are four seasons a year; I think that the Japanese are right in their 26 x 2 week periods (eg the fortnight of bluebells, the fortnight of clear mornings and rainy afternoons).

Some wiki -ing has shown this to be 24 equal periods known as 24 Sekki which, for your eternal edification are:

• Risshun (立春): February 4—Beginning of spring
• Usui (雨水): February 19—Rain water
• Keichitsu (啓蟄): March 5—awakening of hibernated (insects)
• Shunbun (春分): March 20—Vernal equinox, middle of spring
• Seimei (清明): April 5—Clear and bright
• Kokuu (穀雨): April 20—Grain rain
• Rikka (立夏): May 5—Beginning of summer
• Shōman (小満): May 21—Grain full
• Bōshu (芒種): June 6—Grain in ear
• Geshi (夏至): June 21—Summer solstice, middle of summer
• Shōsho (小暑): July 7—Small heat
• Taisho (大暑): July 23—Large heat
• Risshū (立秋): August 7—Beginning of autumn
• Shosho (処暑): August 23—Limit of heat
• Hakuro (白露): September 7—White dew
• Shūbun (秋分): September 23—Autumnal equinox, middle of autumn
• Kanro (寒露): October 8—Cold dew
• Sōkō (霜降): October 23—Frost descent
• Rittō (立冬): November 7—Beginning of winter
• Shōsetsu (小雪): November 22—Small snow
• Taisetsu (大雪): December 7—Large snow
• Tōji (冬至): December 22—Winter solstice, middle of winter
• Shōkan (小寒): January 5 Small Cold—a.k.a. 寒の入り (Kan no iri) entrance of the cold
• Daikan (大寒): January 20—Major cold

(links probably won't work); interestingly Melbounre Cup Day (first Tuesday in November) is considered the beginning of spring in Hampton/Oberon; one can plant tomatoes and basil (as if) out of doors in more or less unsheltered positions (basil still turns to green slime in rain and damp 6 C degree fog). Tomatoes have actually revived, basil now ready for second attempt.

We expect our first frost in March; our growing season is about 100 days, in shortest category in Digger's Seed Club Calender (Google it!). Kate Llwellyn who wrote about gardening at Leura (more of this later) said that an elderly woman neighbour had told her that snow has fallen at Leura every month except February. We are 1100 metres, Leura is 985 metres and may get better western sun than we do (goes behind Mt Bindo 1363 metres on whose upper slopes we live).

Am planning to attempt to match Japanese seasons with local weather.

Now Great British Menu Northern Ireland Region Judgement Night (we are well behind the UK).