Wild and woolly weather

I was going to post these photos last night, but I was sidetracked. I didn't come home till 6 pm and by the time we had dinner the tennis had started. that was the end of any useful activity from me for the night. What a wonderful match - it may have only been three sets but the intensity and standard of tennis from both Federer and Murray was fantastic. What a shame they couldn't both win!


We had the highest tide for the year yesterday morning - 6.85 metres (about 19 feet in imperial). There had been an enormous amount of rain up the valley from us overnight and the radio stations were full of dire warnings about what was going to happen. This is a photo of the river in flood taken from the new bridge over the river, with still about an hour and a half before the top of the tide. The bridge is high and dry, but the road was closed because a creek about 500 metres further on was well under water! The Main Roads Department is building another new bridge over the river in the centre of the city which was also closed because of flooding of low lying road just north of it. That left one bridge open and huge traffic jams!

For the first time in about ten years, the Pioneer river flowed into the Lagoons at the Gardens from the right of this photo - usually the flow is in the other direction. Quite a few fish will probably have come in with the water and they stay in the Lagoons for anything up to three years before they return to the sea again during another flood event. A fisheries expert was telling us that there are about 14 species which live in the Lagoons as part of their life cycle. There is a fish ladder in the culvert under the road to help their passage.

We walked further along the paths at the Gardens to see what damage had been done. We didn't have the torrential downpours here in the city but there were very strong gusting winds from an unusual direction and several trees were blown down, which is a shame. This swamp bloodwood is covered in buds, I like the bud structure as much as the open flowers I think.

These crotons really stood out in the overcast skies, the red berries are really dazzling. All the photos should enlarge if you click on them.

Thanks to Doreen, I have been able to add the gadgets on my sidebar. I am gradually learning about blogging.