floods

The following was written after the floods.

It's 6:30am. I've been up for an hour in a world that is fresh and bright and very green. The birds are done, the horses out, cats fed, coffee made (but not drunk). R has just returned from his morning constitutional with the whippets. It feels as though what R and I call desert weather is approaching. This is based upon our short time in New Mexico where the air was so dry that the days were hot and the nights were cold as there was nothing to shield the earth from the sun's rays nor a particle blanket to prevent the earth from losing heat at night. For Queensland, in the summer, this is not usual and seems to presage desperate weather.

We had 55mm (over two inches) in an hour. The creek belted down, half flooded the paddock again, the peach paddock completely awash (should've taken a photo but didn't think of it til afterwards). Took a bike ride after the worst was over and had fun battling flooded DGR. So much debris that branches as thick as R's arm were washed up onto the high center of the road. Water 1/3 of the way up the bike wheels and currents so strong I had difficulty staying upright. But so much fun too! Pedaled like a mad woman as it was raining still and I needed to warm up but once warm I didn't feel the rain anymore. And this was just near dark so all the verges were singing with not only the sound of running water but frogs and crickets. Dusk has always been a magic time.

Karla's sister and kids fine although the kids are getting counseling. The house was lost. 20 dead, 12 still missing. There's a HUGE community response; everything from making and taking food to the, on Sunday 11,000 volunteers, who show up and clean houses, playing fields, businesses, to people fostering wild and domestic animals. Some guy in China is collecting $$ because we helped them during their floods. In town a salon was donating $10 from every colour or tint they did to the flood. People are donating heavy equipment (gov't pays for fuel), pumps, skills - plumbers, electricians, etc. You name it, someone's doing it for nothing. This is the first time the internet has played a part, a very large part in the recovery. Facebook and twitter are integral to the recovery. Someone started a site on FB for baked goods. Armed with mobile phones and ipads they find areas all over Brisbane that need food and send out agents with fresh baked goods, lunches or drinks. Mothers that can't get out and physically clean houses bake like women possessed, have their products picked up and delivered where it's needed. Our premier, Anna Bligh, who got alot of bad press prior to the disaster has been exemplary in her handling of it; the right amount of tough incisive decision making and emotion (she almost broke down twice during press conferences). During the height of the disaster she was giving information to the public every two hours, willing to delegate and receive information from those experienced in their fields, very human but a tower of strength. I was losing faith in her and probably will again as I don't agree with her policies, but as a leader during a disaster I can't think of anyone who could be better. She has been just amazing.

Fog tracing fingers over the ridges. Nineteen millimetres of rain yesterday afternoon from a noisy storm. Lots of thunder and lightning, some of it very close so that the flash and the bang were one. The verandah birds were unsettled but the horses, standing on the ridge of land surrounding the new lake, didn't even twitch.

It's been too hot to do much of anything. 36 yesterday. Did a little drawing but the heat is so enervating that even my mind has difficulty engaging. The length of the drawing board laying across my bare legs, keeping what little air there is from reaching my skin makes me even hotter. All I can do, along with R and all the animals, is wait it out.

Hugo, one of the greenies, even lies down on his stomach in the corner of the cage and pants. R saw him on his back once. The first time I saw this I thought he was sick but it's just his way. He looks like a little green quail. Speaking of his quail-like qualities, he hasn't grown any flight feathers since he's been here and was even losing feathers on his head. I started to think the worst but his head feathers are regrowing and they look normal so there's hope. I don't want to have to put him down.

The new drawing has had a difficult gestation. I did a series of thumbnails as inspiration, unlike the previous two drawings, was absent. Suppose it was too good to be true, those previous two drawings. Thought creativity was going to roll out of me.. Then there was nothing. Not a nice feeling. Even took to drawing lines with my eyes closed to see if anything suggested itself. Finally, something did. Although it's early stages, barely more than a line drawing, I like it. It's of a sleeping woman with her hand draped over the back of a sleeping cat. I love the hand. I've always loved hands. It's one of the first things I notice about people after their eyes. It's sinuous and soft and quite beautiful, even if I do say so myself. At least the outline of it is. Whether it will remain beautiful as the drawing progresses remains to be seen.

Have meant to say in previous posts that Cornelius is fine. He's singing again and dashing from one end of the verandah to the other. I'm still treating all of them with coccivet. He had to have picked it up from Tony as he was the only new ingredient to the mix and Tony did have coccidiosis. Because Cornelius was such a healthy bird, never having a days illness after his wing was taped, it took a long time to incubate. What threw me too was that until the very end, when he was weak and I believe near death, his faeces remained normal. I don't have a microscope to examine faeces. Tony's faeces are still a bit soft and when he's on my finger and I hold still and watch him he will close his eyes for a second or two. That's not normal. He's been on coccivet off and on his entire short life but what choice do I have. Tony eats well, flies well, is always cranky in the morning, like Jake, and seems to have energy and vivacity – but I don't believe he's 100% either. It was a mistake to treat Cornelius with Flagyl when he didn't have trichomoniasis but the state of his faeces is what put me off. The turn around came when he was directly dosed with coccivet. It was a joyful day the first time I saw him eat a few seeds, with his poor heavy head hanging over the cup, but at least he was eating. Now you wouldn't recognise that he'd ever been sick.

The flood disaster still holds most of Queensland, parts of Victoria, NSW and Tasmania in its thrall. Brisbane is mopping up but most of the CBD is back to work, the markets have reopened and power is being restored to most homes. Some homes will be destroyed as the damage was too great. Grantham residents were allowed to return home yesterday. Twenty people are dead and another 12 are missing still. A couple of days ago we walked to the end of DGR. The road at the far end has been completely destroyed. It has been sliced in half by a new creek, about 16 feet wide and 6 feet deep. The residents have cut a 4 wheel drive track through a paddock but they have no phone, no power and no chance of getting same for quite a while. Someone told them to evacuate as the road would not be repaired but I don't believe they can do that. At least five families live there. It's just going to take a while. We aren't going to repair fences until the rainy season is over.