South Australia-storms and rain

[judydawn]

Noticed that Kimberley, it did have me wondering what you meant 

[meganjane]

JD, in answer to your query about rain here, we were absolutely desperate for rain yesterday and Mother Nature blessed us with 10 mm last night!

Still not enough, our dams are very low and we won't get through summer without carting water and feed for the sheep. We had no summer rain from cyclones this year, so sub moisture is nil, meaning our crops have been really suffering.

It's unbelievable that on one side of the country there's too much rain and on the other there's a drought....

My heart goes out to all those who are dealing with the aftermath of flooding.

[gertbysea]

JD, in answer to your query about rain here, we were absolutely desperate for rain yesterday and Mother Nature blessed us with 10 mm last night!

Still not enough, our dams are very low and we won't get through summer without carting water and feed for the sheep. We had no summer rain from cyclones this year, so sub moisture is nil, meaning our crops have been really suffering.

It's unbelievable that on one side of the country there's too much rain and on the other there's a drought....

My heart goes out to all those who are dealing with the aftermath of flooding.

My Country

The  love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze ...

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

******
©Dorothea MacKellar

This is why we love this country, with all it's faults and why I am Gertbysea!

[Ceejay]

Thanks for that reminder Gretchen. 

[CreamPuff63]

SAID HANRAHAN by John O'Brien

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
In accents most forlorn,
Outside the church, ere Mass began,
One frosty Sunday morn.

The congregation stood about,
Coat-collars to the ears,
And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,
As it had done for years.

"It's looking crook," said Daniel Croke;
"Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,
For never since the banks went broke
Has seasons been so bad."

"It's dry, all right," said young O'Neil,
With which astute remark
He squatted down upon his heel
And chewed a piece of bark.

And so around the chorus ran
"It's keepin' dry, no doubt."
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

"The crops are done; ye'll have your work
To save one bag of grain;
From here way out to Back-o'-Bourke
They're singin' out for rain."

"They're singin' out for rain," he said,
"And all the tanks are dry."
The congregation scratched its head,
And gazed around the sky.

"There won't be grass, in any case,
Enough to feed an ass;
There's not a blade on Casey's place
As I came down to Mass."

"If rain don't come this month," said Dan,
And cleared his throat to speak -
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"If rain don't come this week."

A heavy silence seemed to steal
On all at this remark;
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed a piece of bark.

"We want an inch of rain, we do,"
O'Neil observed at last;
But Croke "maintained" we wanted two
To put the danger past.

"If we don't get three inches, man,
Or four to break this drought,
We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

In God's good time down came the rain;
And all the afternoon
On iron roof and window-pane
It drummed a homely tune.

And through the night it pattered still,
And lightsome, gladsome elves
On dripping spout and window-sill
Kept talking to themselves.

It pelted, pelted all day long,
A-singing at its work,
Till every heart took up the song
Way out to Back-o'-Bourke.

And every creek a banker ran,
And dams filled overtop;
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"If this rain doesn't stop."

And stop it did, in God's good time;
And spring came in to fold
A mantle o'er the hills sublime
Of green and pink and gold.

And days went by on dancing feet,
With harvest-hopes immense,
And laughing eyes beheld the wheat
Nid-nodding o'er the fence.

And, oh, the smiles on every face,
As happy lad and lass
Through grass knee-deep on Casey's place
Went riding down to Mass.

While round the church in clothes genteel
Discoursed the men of mark,
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed his piece of bark.

"There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man,
There will, without a doubt;
We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

Around the Boree Log and Other Verses, 1921

[gertbysea]

Wonderful  CreamPuff. Donchya love it?

Gert

[judydawn]

Thanks girls, it brings a lump to your throat. 

[cookie1]

Oh ,beautiful I only have to go out and see a lovely golden wheat crop and I get a lump in my throat. 

[meganjane]

 
Love both poems.

We call my DH 'Hanrahan'!

[CreamPuff63]

our family have been supplying farmers with concrete tanks for years, and as a young kid have always had to watch every drop of water. have always been mindful of rainfall, and how long we could turn the tap on. i remember this poem from when i was a kid and there was a really bad drought and this poem was on the abc overlaying a drought documentary, and l personally loved the aussie drawl for this genre of aussie poem and agree it does bring a lump to the throat. there appears to be a lot of extremely talented poets back in those days, but i don't think that i am up with todays aussie poets because they don't seem to have struck a chord with me as much as the old ones.

MJ I think there is a Hanrahan in every farmer, but I admire that you have depicted DH as the most pessimistic farmer of them all. of course I say this while i chew me piece of wheat. (or grain that I managed to scavenge in the city)

[cookie1]

Ok CP63, own up. Where are your family from?  Maybe my family bought concrete tanks from them.

[Frozzie]

glad to hear you are all ok..we have had alot of rain over here too but nothiing to affect us where we are..just flooded our local train station underground and the garden is getting a really good soak 

[Thermomixer]

Just rereading my post, in case anyone was wondering, my risotto was 5 minutes cooked, not my sorbet!

Just reading through and about to comment. LOL didn't see cooked sorbet in my book 

[Thermomixer]

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I said that to MrsT as we drove through the driving rain last week listening to the flood news.  Never rains but it bloody well pours.

Cruel.

[cookie1]

Please send us some. I think we're in for massive water restrictions. I've almost forgotten what rain looks like.