I spotted this rainbow this morning when I went outside to wait for my ride to the Op Shop. If you look closely you can just see a second one.
Rainbow
Tag: weather
It’s Raining Again
It has rained every day this week and the next few days are looking no better. There has been no opportunity to go anywhere except to the Op Shop and yesterday out for a meal with friends. As I’m having trouble thinking about what to write about I thought it would be interesting to go back to June 2013 and see what I was writing about back then. What do you know? I was writing about the weather. I had just started joining in with the Daily Prompt and this one was about rain. It is interesting to look back considering that since I wrote this we’ve had drought conditions again and the terrible bushfires last summer.
Singing In The Rain
When I think of these words I immediately think of the famous scene in the movie of the same name where Gene Kelly dances in the pouring rain. It’s a catchy song but I have to say that on the few occasions I’ve been caught in a rainstorm and soaked to the skin I did not feel in the least like singing and dancing. Squelching along with sodden shoes and wet clothes sticking to you is no fun, especially if you know you have an hour long bus ride home to endure before you can get out of them. I can remember two or three occasions when it has happened to me and most of them seem to involve rained out sporting events.
However, I do enjoy listening to the rain when I’m snug and cosy at home. It feels good to be in a warm room or a warm bed listening to the rain thundering on the galvanised iron roof.
“It’s really coming down out there.” David and I used to say to each other.
“I’m glad we’re not out in it.”
Of course, there is more than just being grateful for our good fortune in having a roof over our heads. After a hot dry summer, it is wonderful to see how everything turns green again after a good rain.
Many people think that it rains all the time in Tasmania and parts of it are quite wet at times, but Hobart itself is the second driest capital city in Australia. Adelaide, where we used to live, is the driest.
There were drought conditions here for some years in the mid-2000s and the Midlands and east coast of Tasmania really suffered. Farmers had to put stock down because there was no feed. Lake Dulverton at Oatlands dried up completely. I was told that years ago they used to have sailing and even speed boat racing on Lake Dulverton, I have walked around the lake and seen the remains of moorings. There was even a sailing club and the building is still there. That year the lake itself reminded me of the cover of the Midnight Oil album “Red Sails In The Sunset” which showed Sydney Harbour with no water.
It would have made a great dirt bike track at that time.
Finally, there came a wet winter, it rained and rained. Gradually the lake filled and finally, in spring of 2009 it was full for the first time in many years. I remember visiting the lake around this time and seeing people rowing and fishing on the lake. That did make me feel like singing.
So even though I curse it when I get caught in it or when David used to spatter the washing with mud with his car or I fell over in the garden I really do love the rain because it brings new life.
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Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Weather
Whatever the Weather
I don’t always get out and about when the weather is bad. If you rely on public transport walking around in the rain is not something you usually do for fun because you might have to wait a long time for a bus home. However in 2015 I was travelling to Hobart on the bus regularly to visit David in hospital and always carried my camera. This was taken from the bus window during the big snow of August 2015.
When you see clouds like this you know you had better hurry and find some shelter.
In 2012 my friend Gillian and I both turned 55 and we celebrated with a trip to Tasmania’s west coast to ride on the West Coast Wilderness Railway and cruise on the Gordon River. As it was late May the weather was less than ideal. In fact it rained heavily both days but we were not about to let it spoil our trip. They are used to rain in that part of the state and our tour guide carried on with her talk about the native timbers regardless of the fact that it was pouring.
It’s nice to have sunny weather when you go on holidays but Sydney in summer is just a bit hot for me. This photo was taken on the beach at Watson’s Bay.
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Snapshot Sunday on Monday: Sleet
The first two days of spring were lovely and sunny and so was Sunday morning so I planned to take a walk to the local scrapyard to take some photos for Snapshot Sunday. However, as our mum always used to say “Do what you have to do before you do what you want to do.” I thought that first I had better wash the walls and ceiling in my passage as they are next on the painting list.
By the time I had done that the wind had come up and the rain had begun. So no walk.
Today was even worse with freezing temperatures and snow in the hills. I rarely get snow at my place, this evening at about 6pm it was raining heavily as it had been for most of the day and I looked out to see that there was sleet which would probably have turned into snow had it not been so wet. I took this photo out the back door. This is sleet not my dirty windows.
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Rainbow’s End
It’s winter here in Tasmania. The days are short and the weather unpredictable. Some days, like today, it’s mild and sunny but others we don’t see the sun all day. The grey days are a bit depressing, mostly because of the lack of sunlight but I don’t mind a good downpour. I like the sound of rain on our galvanised iron roof and the sound of a thunderstorm.
The other day I looked outside and the sky was as black as the ace of spades. We live next door to an electricity power sub station and in this photo you can see the black clouds with just a few patches of blue. At first I thought we might get a heavy downpour or even a sprinkle of snow but instead there was a very light rain. I spotted a rainbow so I rushed back inside to get the camera and see if I could capture it. One of the things I like here in Tassie is that usually you can see the entire rainbow. I didn’t see that so much in South Australia, often you’d only see a part of it where I lived.
I like rainbows. I think of the song “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and of the pot of gold that mum used to say was at the end of it. I used to think that it would be wonderful to find it but soon realised that the more you chase a rainbow the further away it gets. That is until we came here. This is Rainbow’s End for me.
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Daily Prompt – Climate Control
Climate Control – Let’s Talk About The Weather
The idea that the weather and people’s moods are connected is quite old. Do you agree? If yes, how does the weather affect your mood?
The weather sometimes has a big effect on my moods. Although I usually don’t mind wet weather and usually enjoy hearing the rain pouring down when I’m snug inside several days of constant rain can get me down a bit. I start to feel trapped in the house when it’s so wet I can’t even walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail because it’s become a sea of mud. Days when there is no sunlight certainly do depress me. I hate dark rooms and having to put the light on during the day. Many people are severely affected by lack of sunlight and suffer a condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
There are two types of weather that really affect me though. Windy days and extreme heat.
When I was a child hot weather didn’t bother me as much but now I find that it does. In South Australia where I used to live the summers have become hotter and longer. The last few summers we lived there we would sometimes have temperatures of forty degrees celsius (104 fahrenheit) for days on end. At night the temperature would only drop by a few degrees and after a few days of this I’d become tired and irritable. I’d hardly have the energy to do anything. It wasn’t just the physical discomfort. I would start to feel as if I had no enthusiasm for anything any more. I also felt anxious about bushfires. I didn’t live in a bushfire prone area but in a climate like that you know that every summer it’s not a case of if there will be fires but when and how bad. I still worry about that today, although it’s not as hot in Tasmania in summer we do get bushfires. and have had some bad ones over the years so there is always that tinge of fear in very hot weather.
Twelve-monthly highest maximum temperature for South Australia
Seeing the effects of drought make me feel sad. People think it rains a lot in Tasmania but parts of it are quite dry at times and for several years there was very little rain in the central and eastern part of the state. Farmers had to sell stock their stock or kill it if they couldn’t afford to buy feed. Their dams dried up. Lake Dulverton at Oatlands which I’d never seen with a lot of water in it dried up almost completely. Then happily there were some good rains. I saw a news story that Lake Dulverton was full for the first time in many years, and visiting Oatlands soon after I saw for myself. The sight of a boat on the lake and fishermen on the bank made me so happy I wanted to sing for joy.
I especially enjoy the climate in Tasmania because there are four distinct seasons. It’s hard not to feel happy on a bright morning riding on the bus to Hobart and looking out at the reflections on the river or seeing the red golds and green golds of the trees in autumn. I feel happy when I see the first daffodils appear after a long cold winter and again when the tulips start to appear a bit later. As for when we get a sprinkling of snow I can’t help getting excited about that. It’s still a novelty after nearly twelve years.
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Photo Thursday – Heatwave!
