Good Morning Monday

[Marguerite]

G'day people.

Today was the New Year's Day public holiday. Overcast and cooler, with some thunderstorms hanging around. Only a little rain, but enough to water my new bush that husband put in yesterday. I got it for Christmas from my best friend.
I dropped in to see my best friend this morning and had a chat. On the way home I also dropped in to visit a neighbour of hers who is a real Grinch in the extreme. I make an effort to be friendly to the guy, but talking to him helped me solve the mystery of who defaced one of our church signs. I'll be very glad to take that information back to our next meeting! Someone had been working up to laying the blame in my direction... not good.

I mentioned my Christmas present yesterday from husband & easy child - I can't find an image of my painting online.

My painting is called "girl hugging bird" and doesn't have a horse in it. It's not large, only about 18" square. Her paintings have the recurring motif of the bird, girl, horse and flowers. With that fragmented effect. I really like her work. Plus we often talk about gardening.

Just thought I'd share a bit more. I'm very happy with it.

husband is back to work tomorrow, after having had most of December home. He'll be taking a bit more time off later in the month.

Enjoy your Monday.

Marg

 

[Fran]

Hi Marguerite,
Your gift was lovely and thoughtful. Both of them. The painting is something you can enjoy forever. I heard on the news about all the severe flooding. I know it's not near you but it sounds pretty bad. I was wondering if Australia gets tornadoes like the US does?
I took husband to the airport for his 6AM flight back to the working world. After more than 2 wks home, I'm sad to see him go. We got all the Christmas decorations down and packed up yesterday. The house always loods somewhat empty without them. The "to do" list is long and it's time to get going.
Hope you all have a productive and meltdown free Monday.

 

[Marguerite]

Hi Fran. We still have the decorations up. mother in law will probably take them down on 6 January.
About tornadoes in Australia - we don't seem to get the really big bad ones like you get in the US, but we do get mini-tornadoes at times, they've been caught on film in Sydney too. About a year ago there was film of a "water spout" at Maroubra Beach (a few beaches south of Bondi Beach) hitting an apartment block and de-roofing it. Some of our bad storms that we get here that have done damage, have been claimed at times to be from a small tornado as part of the storm cell. Further inland we get "dust devils" or "willy willies" which are like smaller tornadoes. But population is more sparse, so there is less damage. A lot of our weather tends to be writ large, so tornadoes could happen but get missed. What we do get here in the tornado family tends to be smaller and more short-lived, and have fewer eye-witnesses. The Maroubra one was an exception.
Other weather systems - we get cyclones further north (not in Sydney) which you would call hurricanes and which in other parts of Asia are called typhoons. I think our cyclones can be bigger as a rule than the ones you get in the US but it's difficult to assess because the scaling system is different for different ocean systems.

The flooding has been since well before Christmas and the periods of rain are continuing. Some river systems are still flooded but most towns are doing OK and people returning home. Some farmers have lost everything; others have lucked out, with the right sort of crop being drenched at just the right time. The east coast river systems all enter into one huge system called the Murray-Darling. So eventually rainfall in north Queensland, if it's far enough inland, can flow right down to South Australia. Very occasionally the centre of Australia floods, and the dry salt lakes become huge inland seas. That is happening more often. In Alice Springs every year they have the Todd River regatta - but the river is always dry, so the regatta is made up of home-made boats which are just frames that people stand in and hold up around themselves, with their legs poking through. Teams carry their boats and physically run along the dry river bed racing one another. I think it's the only regatta in the world that gets cancelled if there's water in the river!

Marg

 

[LittleDudesMom]

Good No Meltdown Monday Morning!

Marg's man back to work, Fran's husband back to work, my difficult child back to school.....it's a Monday of change!

Marg, the painting sounds lovely. Our weather has been a little off as well - we had 60 degree temps this weekend but are back in the 30's and 40's this week!

Fran, I did some "detrimming" yesterday - everything inside but the tree. However, last night as difficult child and I were getting ready to head upstairs, the tree mysteriously went off.........couldn't turn it on this morning.......I was going to leave it up till the Epiphany, but I guess it's coming down today! My to do list is full as well because I've enjoyed the holiday break.... a lot ......

difficult child was up early and downstairs before me this morning! Not that he is that excited about school - I think it was just the early bedtime, the making sure he was on time, the change in schedule.....

Like Fran, I've a full to do list here at the house because it's not only Monday but the first day back on schedule!

Hope your Monday is a good one and your difficult children realize it is No Meltdown Monday

Sharon

 

[Marguerite]

OK, I spoke too soon about floods easing. Rockhampton in Queensland is completely isolated, I just heard on the news bulletin. More flooding here will them move down to more towns further south. It's going to be a rough few months for them in Queensland.

Hi Sharon/LDM. I hope the back to school goes OK.

Marg

 

[SearchingForRainbows]

Good Morning Everyone,

Marge, The bush and painting are such beautiful and thoughtful gifts. You'll be able to enjoy them for years to come. I haven't read the paper yet, but I skimmed the headlines and there is a front page story about all the flooding in Australia... I can't even imagine that much water... What an unfortunate start to 2011!

Fran, We also took down all our holiday decorations - Just the wreath remaining on the front door. I told difficult child 1 he can have it to decorate his apartment with next year. I've got lots on the "to do" list too - Just can't start without enough caffeine, lol...

Sharon (LDM), We had unseasonably warm temps in the 50's but today is much colder! Thanks for the good thoughts about difficult children realizing that it's "no melt-down" Monday. Unfortunately, difficult child 2 didn't get the message!!! However, he is now finally back at school!!! Nothing can ruin my good mood, lol...!!!

Well, headed to the kitchen... Need some more caffeine!!!

Hope everyone has a good day... SFR

 

[Fran]

Marge how far is Queensland from you? How many hours in a car would it take?

 

[Marguerite]

Sydney is a bit more than halfway down the NSW coast. Queensland is to the north. The Queensland border is 832 km away from Sydney centre. It would take about 10 hours to drive there. I have a brother just north of the border, and a sister just south. When I say "just", each is an hour on either side of the border, they live two hours form one another. Quite close, as our family goes.

Queensland, if you want to drive from the border to Cairns (still not the top, but where the tarred road gives out I believe) is another 1800 km and would take an extra 21 hours driving. 2632 km in all, 31 hours driving. From the centre of Sydney, which can sometimes take is to hours to reach from where we live. That's driving along the coast. Inland, Queensland is huge (although currently, very wet and underwater). At the moment the roads are cut in many places and have been since early December in places.
I'm not sure if Oprah got to Cairns. I know she got to Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays. That's about two thirds the way to Cairns. Properpine is on the mainland, about an hour's drive away from Shute Harbour where you can get a quick boat to Hamilton Island. There was flooding when Oprah was here, but not in that part of Queensland right then. Besides, on the coast if flows away quickly. Oprah would have seen the floods from the air. I've flown over flooding up the coast and it really is a spectacular sight. Not fun to live through it, though. Up there a lot of the older houses are built on stilts or high piles. Kids play underneath, in summer people live underneath and store stuff, but when it floods, the houses tend to be OK. But increasingly, people build at ground level. A big mistake up there.
For a while when I was younger, I lived with my parents in a house on high piles on the NSW north coast. It was latticed in underneath, but the height above the ground kept us safer from flooding rains pouring down the hill, and also kept the house cooler and vermin-free (mostly). Ground level is a lot riskier especially in floods - even if the water isn't entering the house, a lot of snakes, spiders, rats & mice are trying to get high and dry.

People often find it hard to comprehend just how big Australia really is.

Marg