We have been away for three weeks staying with friends and family ……… on holiday. I use the term holiday loosely, as Butch doesn’t like sitting around or being a tourist, so he did some cementing, tidied up some paving, did some welding ……. generally got his hands dirty. I went to a quilt meeting, checked out all the op shops, quilt shops and secondhand shops, visited a couple of art exhibitions, ate fish and chips at the beach and enjoyed the company of good friends.
If you heard about the dust storm which almost closed down Syndey, this is what it looked like two days earlier over Burra, South Australia, just before it rained mud for a sort time. Later in Spalding we found a house without a roof and a severely damaged roadhouse, and in Cowell we saw golf ball size hail stones which fell that same day, and wind damage on farms. I managed to skirt around it somehow!
I broke the quilt hoop I took with me the first time I sat down to quilt, so bought materials for a new project I could start on the run without my usual sewing, drafting and cutting tools.
During the 3 days of the Paskeville Field Days Butch cooked breakfast for about 100 clients in one of the vendors sites, and the staff lunches, and found time to check out tools and tractors between the two meals. I went one day and became footsore wandering around the general interest sites, finding some fabric and some plants.
We also helped babysit grandies of friends, patted a standardbred horse or two, and watched as the ’scrappies’ loaded three generation of farm trucks onto a trailer to be recycled. One of the trucks was the biggest truck in thte world when my Dad brought it home when I was a preschooler. That was in the days before childacre centres, kindies etc, and I got to ride in the truck to deliver wheat to the silo. And even that was after we carried bagged wheat to the station.
I am back, with snuffles and sneezes which indicate spring, with a backlog of washing, and lots of ideas for future projects, and for finishing some of the UFOs.
October 12, 2009 at 7:08 am
Hi Judy,
I missed the dust storm in Broken Hill by a few days, but the town was still reeling under the impact. Everything was a strange colour and house and shop interiors still being cleaned as best they could. Broken Hill ran on emergency power from one of the mine generators for several days as they struggled to get the main transmission lines repaired…. five of the big towers were flattened in the storm.
There was evidence of the storm’s passage where it cut across the Silver City highway – what few trees there are torn out of the ground and scattered.
There was another minor storm on the day friends and I chose to drive down to Menindie – very gritty air and no real rain to settle it.
Our climate is certainly changing dramatically!
And yes, you were missed!
Cheers
Robbie
October 12, 2009 at 8:27 am
Robbie, Broken Hill and Sydney really copped the lot! At Burra the dust was way overhead and the rain short lived. However, climate change has brought a reasonable growing year to most of South Australian grain growers, the first for four or five years. And less wind and dust, though perhaps the willy willies have become sronger. And thank you for missing me! Judy B