Climate Victim.

The endless rain enters the 17th week of wetness, (except for 3-4 sunny days mid-November 07) including a major flood event that came in a January 4th midnight cloudburst, causing huge damage all across district and 2nd highest flood on record.

About 570 mm in last 25 days. Over 22 inches on old scale.
But months of it before that.
A very wet wet season.

Bridge across creek at entrance after the mid night 280mm deluge of January 4, 2008.

Looking out across bridge towards main road entrance after the night's cloudburst of 040108.

Two weeks of bronchial flu, having to sleep in wet bed that got soaked in deluge & wet weather since plus too weak to move mattress anyway, and run out of clean sheets. Got myself to hospital when I felt like I was getting pneumonia. The good doctor gave me antibiotics and am on mend but still ill, it's slow. Couldn't talk for 5 days and it still hurts to cough. I cough a lot.

Everything is soaked & I have to sit with hot air blower on as I write to keep dry as the 100 percent humidity means I'm wet all the time. Have to use hair dryer on head every half hour or so to dry out hair.

Biting midges and mosquitoes mean mosquito coils... means inhaling toxic fumes... means aggravated spasms of painful coughing.

Other complications I won't go into here have turned my life from happy to miserable.

STRANDED!
The road collapse of 160108.
Luckily nobody was on the crossing.

Now a DISASTER as the road has suddenly collapsed where it crosses a 20m plus deep knife gully on my exit road and I'm stuck in, unable to get out for supplies. Being partly lame hasn't helped, especially as yesterday my dicky knee went out of joint and I can't walk very well at all. On the steep wet slippery rocks that constitute the paths between studio & bunkhouse this is a nightmare of inching along balancing umbrella, walking stick & whatever I'm trying to carry between houses.

Water pours around running over every surface in an endless sog, even when the rain eases. Where there is grass there is a swamp of mud and slime. Where there are rocks they are all slippery & slimey. Inside the houses all is moulds. Every bit of clothing, bedding, carpets damp & mouldy.

The endless wet has also meant can't get car in under shelter as it gets bogged at slushy entrance to carport. So it sits out in rain and is cranky to start & runs on 3 pots. At least I have it to get me as far as the washout, about 1 km from houses.

Have supplies to last a few more days and my road-sharing neighbors can bring me necessities, as they have a car on other side of the collapse, but that hardly solves the problem. Trying to overcome the anxiety, but eating & sleeping now difficult.

Must summon inner resources to solve the problem & release myself from this prison.

I keep wondering what can happen next. Is this the end? Will some miracle happen to get me to safe haven and my usual happy self again?

Even poor kookaburra can't fly she's so wet. When she tried to take off after I fed her she dropped into bushes and I had to rescue her & put her up onto a branch to give her elevation.
I hear her chuckling in the tree as I write.

Her message is:

LET'S LAUGH
NO POINT IN CRYING IS THERE!

Super Storm Cell

Big hail fell in the latest of the series of storms generated by this slow moving low pressure system we are in. The above shows what fell here this afternoon, not too serious.

BUT......

Lismore and Mullumbimby had huge damage with hailstones like cricket balls cannoning through windscreens and windows, breaking rooves, flooding stores & ruining stock.

This morning's event growled & boomed in the dawn. Must have had 5 big storms in last 2 days so far. There will be more to come.

Fortress City

Satellites Above

This week APEC has taken over Sydney CBD. Sydney is in Lock Down.

Most of the citizens have exited, gone bush, upcountry, to the beach, the snow, or are just laying low at home waiting for it all to return to normal.

What we are observing, that is what we are permitted to see via the media, is very sobering. Why the nation's most populous city has to be shut down for this event is beyond me. Surely the whole shebang could have been staged elsewhere, away from population centers, so as not to incur the huge expense we all have to bear eventually.

Why not create a secure fortress in a remote outback conference center/resort, where the APEC leaders could be brought in & out by air. Where their every need could be catered for, where the main conference could be carried out in safety, well away from demonstrators, terrorists & other persons of interest that are attracted like flies to its' meat. For $300 million they could have built such a venue. It seems to me the whole thing is an exercise in stupidity. It knocks at least a week out of Sydney's economy on so many levels.

Just to remind us that the problems are right here in our own precincts, local towns are now getting CCTV street surveillance security cams.

Hello the Brave New World. Keep smiling, it's all for your benefit, blame the terrorists - you know, those who would destroy the fabric of our beautiful society. Do you see where all this is going?

I see sleepwalkers going like lambs to the slaughter. The trap is sprung, there is no way out. Protest and you are branded - one of Them. Either/Or. Yes/No. It's all so binary, no rainbows of options , all black or white.

So I just stay out of it all. It's all so harsh. A world of pain, of bullies, of violence , of people enslaved by debt and bureaucratic rat runs.

Kamertaj brings Anu to the Springs of the Muses.

For the last months I have been learning fractal art . It's my world, a world of beauty, peace, color and sweet harmony. A world of light and laughter.

So here I share with you some of my recent creations. You can see more on my Flickr site, just press on the link on right to go there.

The very good news is that the last week here has been gentle soft rain. A great start to Spring.

Stay safe, laugh a lot, be happy and make a better world, it's the only planet we've got.

RAIN !

FRACTAL ART

TIME SHIP

GUARDIANS OF THE JEWEL

At last the drought has broken & @ 170mm over 5 days gently soaking rain filled the tank. I've had my first bath since February, almost forgotten the joys of wallowing in water. How dirty was the water asked probing friends? Aha..crystal clear actually, because of my very basic bath in a tin shed with concrete floor I can do the Japanesy thing & wash outside the bath before getting in to soak. This is a good trick if you have limited water too, as you can use the bathwater 2 or 3 times.

But we were lucky here, the rain was gentle. Not so 2-300 km north on Sunshine coast where the East coast low dumped something in the order of 800-900mm in a couple of days, which, combined with a king tide, brought extreme flooding.

Next of course we have the Equine flu & paralysis of the horse breeding & racing in 5 states.

The fires in southern Europe, especially Greece, the typhoons in Taiwan & China, the storms in the mid USA, overall the planet is in apocalypse.

My own life has suddenly entered a hugely creative stage. I've been into Flickr in a BIG way, surfing around the tags & groups & images, finding many, many wonderful postings from members & getting to talk with a few by flickrmail.

Hi if you are one of my chat buddies ! You have been so inspirational.

From all this has come an amazing surge of the juices in me. I've returned to an old love of the late 80's & early 90's - Fractals !

I've found progs like Fractal eXtreme, Agony, Apophysis, Chaoscope & have been on yet another steeeeep learning curve of endless obsessive image creation, modifying & enhancing with Photoshop.

So here, above, are my first efforts.

Stay safe my friends

Rain - 15.5 mm in gauge today.
Has the drought broken really ?
Might be able to have a bath soon if it keeps up.
A Paradise riflebird is nesting among the palms in the "garden" (read wilderness) - a Green catbird calls in the dawn and bowerbirds & flock pigeons now visiting as the planet swings us into the winter weather cycles.
Still very warm altho the insects aren't as noisy, or bitey.
I am at peace, riding Kamertaj my windy mare.
This is a hat I made for my old friend Jo.
Love to you all.