Wednesday 13 August 2008

strolling with a dog in the lusciously wet Darebin Parklands



Penny and I wandered around Darebin Parklands today to admire the green, green plants. On the way I heard a couple of locals chatting to each other across a street. (I couldn't help but overhear, seeing they were calling across the road.) One said she was tired of this wintry weather. They laughed that we'll soon be complaining about the hot, dry drought taking over again.

I wasn't laughing. I hate the drought. I hate the hot weather. I hate the fact that I have to watch out for snakes, even in my own backyard. Note, I don't say I hate the snakes themselves. They have a right to live. I just wish they weren't capable of killing me or Penny.

I love this rain we're getting. For the first time in ages, we are half way through a month and we've received HALF OF THE AVERAGE RAINFALL. Hooray!

As we walked past an area of lush grass, I realised it must be the result of a planting day last year, or maybe it was the year before... I'm so used to seeing brown, dried-up, struggling clumps of grass that at first I didn't recognise what I was seeing.



I began to doubt. Maybe it wasn't planted native grass I was seeing... But... the mowing seemed to delineate that section. It sure looked like native grass. And then I saw the outline of small mulch mat hidden in the foliage. I sure hope the plants we put in a couple of weeks ago will look as good as this next year.

Penny, as usual, checked out the puddles. The lovely puddles. The delightful, life-giving rainy puddles.

7 comments:

Noah the Airedale said...

I'm with you Parlance, the colder the better. The drought is worse down in Victoria that it is around here. Infact here in the Blue Mts we've had plenty of rain and it is very green. I wish it was the same all over. Last summer was sooo hot down there that I hope winter hangs around longer than usual for you with more rain of course.

tailwags
Noah xx

Mary said...

Hi there
We have been talking about the weather lately and celebrating the rain also. We decided that it was 'promising' to rain rather than 'threatening' to rain. It all depends on your perspective.

parlance said...

Mary, I always listen carefully to radio announcers when they talk about the weather forecast. If they say something like 'rain threatening', I feel that they should get out into the real world. But mostly they would say 'promising', or something like that, I reckon.
I enjoyed looking at your blog. Keep learning!

parlance said...

Noah, it's great, isn't it? We've got three big water tanks sitting around at our place and we've been waiting for SEVEN months for the plumber to, firstly, deliver - and then put them in. I sure hope it keeps on raining after he connects them up.

Misadventures of Widowhood said...

I love that first photograph of Penny playing in the water. The park looks beautiful, a good way to enjoy the great outdoors. Although I could do without the snakes, too. We live in the city but have a cattail area between us and our neighbors and we have a snake we have to watch out for, too, by the cattails. Thankfully, he's not a dangerous kind like yours.

Levi's mom

Misadventures of Widowhood said...

P.S. I found a Tony Lama hat! I had given up on looking and started looking for one with a Levi logo instead when up pops the Lama hat on my screen. Maybe there really is such a thing as angel power. LOL

parlance said...

Levi's mom, I'm glad your snake is not dangerous. Someone told me that snakes are right to be very scared of us, because their backbones are so fragile that we (or our dogs) could kill then in an instant even without meaning to.

I'm really glad to hear you found the cap.