Will early spring blooms survive?

Early Spring in Wisconsin

R wrote

Hello from sunny Wisconsin. It's mid March and 70 degrees. I have trees in bloom and perennials popping up everywhere. The grass is green and Roberto will no doubt want to cut it soon. Only problem is, this can't last. Not here. We are due for a deep freeze yet to come. So who knows what will happen to my garden. I actually have the air conditioner running because without the shade of all our trees, this place is a hot house.

Clara - 70 degrees in March!!! The groundhog must have seen his shadow (or whatever he does). Poor little plants though - hope they survive. I remember how you shrouded your early spring garden one year when a big freeze was forecast.  You saved it!   I have searched for the post but couldn't find it.  Had lots of fun going back over the years  - brought back great memories, your amazing year of design.   Perhaps you can find the photo I was looking for.
I'm doing a 'Make your own book' course for two Saturdays - maybe you should publish highlights from a year of design. 

We are into Autumn and finally having sunny weather instead of deluges of rain with floods in many states.  Today we went to the fish markets -  a glorious day on the water so we had a little lunch there.

Early Autumn in Sydney

  

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Drought, flood and bushfire - biblical constants

Drought dried waterhole became a bog

Sheila, Australian slang for "woman"

They got her out  - 

she didn't last the night.
We feel for the livestock and
native animals trapped in the floods.


'Drought, flood & bushfire - biblical constants' 

 



  

Mates from the army back on duty

"I knew we'd get the sheila out of the bog"

 Clara - Stanthorpe Queensland -
October 2002

Sheila in the Bog
A glimpse of bovine terror -
Rolled back eyes and flared nostrils
Showed your intense and overpowering fear
Of sinking further into the mud


Drought dried waterhole
Circled by frantic calf, desperate to connect
Sensed disaster removing prime security
Yet respected danger there


It’s hungry demands had led you to
Seek scant remaining water
Violent efforts to reach familiar foothold
Immersed you even deeper


At your peak of terror when it seemed
Your struggle for survival had been lost
Help arrived in human form
Backed up with red tractor


“Hook the noose around the horns -
Hold the horns - keep the head steady
Don’t want to break her neck!
Come on Girl - you can make it!”


“Well done Men, - I knew
We’d get the sheila out of the bog”




Terror

‘Sheila in the Bog’

Bovine terror in your eyes -
Your familiar foothold
No longer there.
Structure of security changed
Threatening the fibre
Of your survival.
Drought is your terrorist--

September 11, Bali bombings
Undermines human security

clara@babyboomerconnections.com.au

Clara waxes lyrical - "We need the Rains"

Hi there
Yes, we need the rains.  It just needs to know when to stop.Clara

Wheat silos in Dooen




Dooen Hotel opened in 1876
 (Photographed 2004)

 



This arid earth

"We need the Rains"

Clara Easter 2001  - for G

Dooen Pub, Whatchya been doin' all this time

Since they built you in 1876?

On a vast dry plain beside this endless road
Only silos to interrupt the wide horizon.
"We need the rains," you must have said, and still do now.


You've quenched the thirsts, heard the tales
Of those brave folk who toiled and sweated
Endured the drought yet kept their faith
That the parched cracked earth could yield its golden bounty.
"We need the rains," they must have said, and still do now.


Horse and cart; now semi-trailers,  cars
Bring your thirsty crowd to drink, to tell their tales
Share time with others to renew their faith
That this arid earth will be quenched in time
"We need the rains," they must have said, and still do now.


Click on 'comment' at bottom of page to have your say or email clara@babyboomerconnections.com.au www.babyboomerconnections.com.au

'Said Hanrahan' - a message of hope, balance and perspective



Taken  on the Wimmera Plains
now in flood

Hi there
While demonstrating typical Australian humour and self-mockery which is often used in tough times, 'Said Hanrahan' is also a story of hope in times of both drought and the current challenges of flood, being a reminder that no matter whether we are facing times of feast or drought, in the bigger picture,  everything does turn out well in the end provided we keep our sense of hope, balance and perspective.  Clara



From - Wiki - The recurrent natural cycle of droughts, floods and bushfires in rural Australia as seen by "Hanrahan", a pessimistic man of Irish descent. "'We'll all be rooned', said Hanrahan"—an adage extracted from the poem—has entered the Australian English lexicon as a dismissive response to predictions of disasters or hard times, especially those out of the control of the speakers.


SAID HANRAHAN by John O'Brien

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,

Wheat silos at Dooen

 In accents most forlorn,
Outside the church, ere Mass began,
One frosty Sunday morn.


The congregation stood about,
Coat-collars to the ears,
And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,
As it had done for years.


"It's looking crook," said Daniel Croke;
"Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,
For never since the banks went broke
Has seasons been so bad."


"It's dry, all right," said young O'Neil,
With which astute remark
He squatted down upon his heel
And chewed a piece of bark.


And so around the chorus ran
"It's keepin' dry, no doubt."
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."


"The crops are done; ye'll have your work
To save one bag of grain;
From here way out to Back-o'-Bourke
They're singin' out for rain.


"They're singin' out for rain," he said,
"And all the tanks are dry."
The congregation scratched its head,
And gazed around the sky.


"There won't be grass, in any case,
Enough to feed an ass;
There's not a blade on Casey's place
As I came down to Mass."


"If rain don't come this month," said Dan,
And cleared his throat to speak -
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"If rain don't come this week."


A heavy silence seemed to steal
On all at this remark;
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed a piece of bark.


"We want an inch of rain, we do,"
O'Neil observed at last;
But Croke "maintained" we wanted two
To put the danger past.


"If we don't get three inches, man,
Or four to break this drought,
We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."


In God's good time down came the rain;
And all the afternoon
On iron roof and window-pane
It drummed a homely tune.


And through the night it pattered still,
And lightsome, gladsome elves
On dripping spout and window-sill
Kept talking to themselves.


It pelted, pelted all day long,
A-singing at its work,
Till every heart took up the song
Way out to Back-o'-Bourke.


And every creek a banker ran,
And dams filled overtop;
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"If this rain doesn't stop."


And stop it did, in God's good time;
And spring came in to fold
A mantle o'er the hills sublime
Of green and pink and gold.


And days went by on dancing feet,
With harvest-hopes immense,
And laughing eyes beheld the wheat
Nid-nodding o'er the fence.


And, oh, the smiles on every face,
As happy lad and lass
Through grass knee-deep on Casey's place
Went riding down to Mass.


While round the church in clothes genteel
Discoursed the men of mark,
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed his piece of bark.


"There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man,
There will, without a doubt;
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."


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 http://www.babyboomerconnections.com.au/

...........Of droughts and flooding rains - Dorothea Mackellar

I love a sunburnt country

A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror -

The wide brown land for me!

As Dorothea Mackellar expressed so well in her poem "My Country", Australia historically is a land of extremes, as the farmers well know. Devastatingly depressing, as they struggle with stress and anxiety, loss of hope and collectively the loss of millions of dollars in income.

From - The Australian Jan 11 -   Floods in Queensland.

Mental health organisation, Lifeline, is preparing for a surge in rural depression as, after years of drought, farmers watch their bumper harvests being washed away by floods.'

We forget, because of 10 years of drought, that land floods.  Perhaps the lesson is to keep the receipts, particularly in the cities, where new standards are obviously needed to prevent urban development in flood prone areas.  The environmental and social consequences are often overridden with the primary interest being the economic value of the land. 

Wisdom from G, who grew up on the land, "Farmers wouldn't build their home on a flood plain, as they live with the land not from the land. Farmers today understand their forefathers didn't farm appropriately for Australian conditions but today's farmer has a different appreciation. They are considered the best 'dryfarmers' in the world, eg growing rice with approx 1/3 the amount of water than in Asia.

Hopefully, the following years with full dams and replenished underground water storage, will be more positive for the Aussie cockies who keep us supplied with fabulous produce and by the way, they are not subsidised.  Flood can follow drought but even if there is little rain in the period to follow, good harvest will normally occur due to the underground storage and moist soils." 
Clara 

My Country

by Dorothea Mackellar (1885 - 1968)
The love of field and coppice,

Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.


I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!


A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.


Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.


Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold-
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.


An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,

I know to what brown country

My homing thoughts will fly.

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 http://www.babyboomerconnections.com.au/

Empathy for flood victims returning to devastated homes

Most tragic are the lives swept away in the flood waters of Queensland and northern New South Wales, but those returning to their devastated homes face loss of possessions, memories and hopes.


Despite the generosity of Queensland Flood Appeal and the emergency response to the immediate physical needs of flood victims, there is a heavy emotional toll.   Many people despair with the trauma and stress following a natural disaster as they rebuild their lives in the weeks and months to come.


A tribute to home - "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in"..... Robert Frost
or "Home is where the heart is" or "Home is where I hang my hat"
Hugh Mackay - 'What makes us tick?'  "Shelter to protect us from the elements,  to have an uninterrupted  night's sleep and to keep our stuff secure.   Shelter is so fundamental to our comfort and, indeed our survival - almost on a par with our need for food and drink." and  " .....partly an anchor, partly a refuge, partly a stable reference point in a world that seems kaleidoscopic in the complexity of its shifting patterns." 

Whatever the definition, we can but try to empathise how it must feel to suddenly feel that loss of home.  Our thoughts and support are with you as you restore your home and your faith.
Clara
ps - below is a link if you would like to contribute towards the cleanup  
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/Lifeline  

 Click on 'comment' at bottom of page to have your say or email clara@babyboomerconnections.com.au www.babyboomerconnections.com.au