Good Morning Tuesday

[Marguerite]

Well, it's Tuesday evening here and the weather is nasty. The wind speeds are cyclone strength (as in hurricane) according to the news. 130 km/h. We got a massive dump of rain in an hour, I haven't been out to check the rain gauge yet. It would blow the spots of a brown dog, as my mother would have said. With the full moon (did you guys get to see the partial eclipse at all?) we've already got very high tides, and the storm surge has brought the seas up dangerously high. We're okay where we are, but down in the lower areas of the village it will be interesting, to say the least. I've got my choir class tonight, the teacher's house is just above a low sandstone cliff with a large window overlooking it towards the city. It should give us a spectacular view of a boiling sea.

The rivers have flooded, power failures everywhere (not here, thankfully, not yet).

Adding to this 'fun' - a dump of snow just west of Sydney in the Blue Mountains. It never snows here, of course, not since the last Ice Age. But an hour's drive west, another hour's drive south, the hills are white. "Sheep graziers alert" is what our weather bureau calls it. I wouldn't let a sheep out loose in this, you'd find it (maybe) several districts away.

When the wind's like this, walking in it is a struggle. I'll have to take one of my heavy duty walking sticks with me tonight or I won't manage. And my down jacket, and my wool beanie. I'm already wearing husband's heavy knitted sweater and I'm curled up under the doona.

husband should be home soon. Unless the road home is flooded (which happens in this sort of weather). I'm hoping the river hasn't had time to rise yet.

I know this all sounds dire, but we are safe. It's just a blasted nuisance.

Worst of all - there is likely to be too much cloud cover for us to watch the transit of Venus, due tomorrow morning 8 am Sydney time. For those of you in the US, you all should be able to see it. It's round about sunset Tuesday, I believe. You should be able to get some amazing photos, if you can capture the tiny speck of Venus against a setting sun.

It's crazy - we knew this was coming, the warnings have been issued and well reported. But it was eerily quiet, the sun was shining when I collected difficult child 3 form college at lunchtime. I was there waiting for him for 15 minutes. Sun was shining when I pulled up. When we left, the sky had clouded over. There was that purple smudge (snow and/or hail) over the Blue Mountains to the west, and also to the south over the Southern Highlands. All in such a short time.

Winter's here. Wind chill down to 0 C. For Sydney on the coast.

Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night...

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Marg

 

[hearts and roses]

Good morning Tuesday!

Marg, I felt like I was reading the opening to great novel while reading your morning post. Stay warm and safe! I hope husband made it home okay.

Around here, I feel like I'm living in the Hundred Acre Wood with Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh, gray clouds, the trees are just popping with new, wide, green foliage...it's marvelous. I could use a little sunshine though!

Have a fabulous day everyone!

 

[Wiped Out]

Good morning!

Marg-Whoa-glad you are safe! My husband and I like to watch spooky movies on nights like that.

Big day here in Wisconsin as it is the recall election! I voted early. Last week when we were on our way to husband's heart catherization (sp?)
he said he wanted to vote just in case anything happened to him. I know the race is going to be very close so I may not sleep tonight.

Wishing all a beautiful day!

 

[Marguerite]

On my way home from choir, I drove down to have a look at the wharf. The sea was just washing back and forth across the whole breakwater, where we normally park to pick the kids up from the school boat. The bulk of the jetty itself was underwater at the top of the tide. I was there about two hours after the tide began to drop. I suspect tomorrow morning will show a badly eroded beach again. They bring the bulldozers in when the weather clears, because the footbridge to the beach ends in mid air until they dig some beach back. A few houses may have been swamped as well. As we drove around, husband & I saw the fire brigade volunteers going here and there, making emergency repairs to homes and power poles. Broken trees everywhere, debris blowing across the road. The wind is still wild outside. It's not forecast to ease until well into tomorrow.

husband is home tomorrow but is driving difficult child 3 to college in the morning. Normally difficult child 3 could catch the boat to the mainland, but it's not likely to be running. The roads will be covered in debris and could be flooded. I'm on the later drive to collect difficult child 3 at lunchtime - I'll get to see the state of the road then. Any flood should have subsided by then too.

Our house seems to be coming through okay.

Do watch for the transit of Venus if you can, if your skies are clear. The best way to set this up is to get binoculars or a spy glass or similar and (without looking through it) point it at the sun, then let the image from the eyepiece fall onto a shaded sheet of paper. Move things around a bit, moving the paper in and out, until the image comes into focus. Or you can improvise a pinhole camera - seriously, a sheet of paper with a tiny hole in it can also capture the image for you.

Alternatively, watch it through welder's goggles.

Have fun!

Marg