Rain!

Only one day after posting a photo of Penny in a 'pretend' puddle, I was able to get a shot of her in a real one! Hooray for rain. The resilient plants are already sending out new growth. (I don't have the heart to whisper to them that it's too late for summer growth and that winter might be around the corner. Let them enjoy growing for a little longer.)

wombat, dog and no rain in sight

When is it going to rain? Our garden is desiccated, and so are the parks where we walk. Here's the soil last week at Yarra Bend.

 

 For the first time in weeks, we decided to take a stroll in Darebin Parklands a couple of days ago, and it sure is dry. The ground is cracking open.


 

The ranger does a terrific job looking after this huge area, and it's great to see the historic mulberry trees are surviving so far.


 

We received an email on Sunday evening warning us to be aware of the wombat that has been released in the Parklands. We'll certainly respect its right to live safely, and won't knowingly disturb it.

To be honest, I'd be a bit scared to meet it unexpectedly. When we go to the hills for our holiday, we don't go too near the huge wombat that lives around our house, except that Penny loves to gobble up his poo. I usually leap out of the car first, gather up the heaps of grassy poo and put it in the compost bin, but occasionally I miss some and Penny delights in it. One time, I closed a gate in the daytime not realising the wombat might be in that paddock. I remembered, went down in the dark to re-open the gate and a humongous giant - the wombat - rushed past as soon as it was open. Penny and I took to our heels in fright.

not complaining about all the recent rain

No, I will never again complain about too much rain, after all the years of drought we've had.

But...

it sure has rained a lot recently. It's got to the stage where it's hard for a somewhat older dog walker to keep her footing. Most of the best places around here are along the Yarra River, or along local creeks, because that's where the public open land is, and they are swampy and muddy places.

But great for a dog who has part-poodle heritage. (I was quite surprised to realise the word "poodle' is a derived from the word 'puddle' and that poodles are water dogs.)



Of course, having wandered through every puddle as I minced around the edges, Penny had a delightful layer of mud up to her belly.( I thought it would involve a third dunk in the bath for her - two recently - but luckily it brushed out easily later at home.)



It rained most of the time we were out, and the clouds threatened even heavier rain.



So, of course, we and one other lone woman with dog were the only silly billies tramping through the slush. But wait! As we walked along the edge of the golf course, what did we see? The other type of all-weather people - golfers.



We headed back to the car past the tennis courts, and took note of the sign on the gate that should stop any complacency about the current rain. After so long without rain it will take more than one wet season to restore nature's balance.

The rains continue and Penny visits Darebin Parklands

We went down to Darebin Parklands today to see the swollen creek and to enjoy the fresh green growth, such a pleasure after the years of drought.



But of course, as in our famous poem, there are 'droughts and flooding rains', and I realise not everyone may be enjoying the flooding we are experiencing at the moment. Today the water was up over the path even early in the morning, and we had to retrace our steps, instead of making a circuit of the park.



Because of the lack of access to our usual route, we didn't go to the off-lead area, so Penny walked on lead for an hour, usually a annoying time for us, as she likes to surge ahead.

However, today was different, because Cindy told me about the Sporn Mesh Non-pull Harness - and it works! I bought one at Coldstream Animal Aid and slipped it over Penny's head as I was shown, and she doesn't pull now. It's just amazing. As you can see from these photos, the lead is quite loose - well, most of the time!

a wet dog

I'm sure that if I were to look back one year at my old posts, I would have been writing about the drought. It was so stressful and depressing.

Well, today, Penny and her two humans set off for a thirty-five minute walk on a lovely cool cloudy day. Yes, she can now walk for thirty-five minutes - we build up five extra minutes each week. At first, we enjoyed the puddles and the dampness, as a contrast to the hot days we've recently had.



And then we got caught in a huge downpour. We sheltered under a tree, but got soaked. We took refuge in a toilet block and still got soaked. We all crowded together into a toilet cubicle with the door shut, standing in rising water and dripping wet all over, and the rain still blew in.

Eventually we decided we'd have to grin and bear it, so we set off at the usual slow, slow, post-operative pace, slogging through the rain.

But you know what?

We still love rain!

it never rains but it pours

The horrible unseasonable heat wave has broken, and the rain has come! Lovely rain!

We went down to Darebin Parklands today to see how it is reacting to the overnight rain, and the creek was raging.

In fact, when we tried to walk along the path on the Darebin side, it was under water. I can't remember the actual path being submerged, not even in the welcome rain in December last year.



Hmm... I wonder where the snake has gone, the one who lives under this decking? I hope it relocated safely to higher ground. And I hope we don't meet it unexpectedly!

We turned back and headed for higher ground, and then went to see whether we could return to the Banyule side via the Sidney Clifton bridge. No, not a chance! It was well and truly submerged.



We went closer.



And Penny dashed ahead to have a close look. such a close look that she gave us conniptions!

dog-walking after the welcome rain in Darebin Parklands

Penny and her human family had a refreshing walk in the newly green Darebin Parklands today. Melbourne has had gentle rain over the last few days - not as much as we need, but enough to raise our spirits after the sudden tragedy of bushfires and the slow attrition of drought.

New plants are spreading their leaves in the dampness.



And it's a pleasure to wander along the beautiful track in the Hidden Valley.






It's wonderful to think this beautiful bushland is available right in the middle of densely-settled suburbia!

fun for dogs young and old after soaking rain

Look at this!

Yep! It's puddles. Rain has blessed us at last.

And here's Bonnie, Penny's old friend, trying to get us into trouble by wandering off-lead into the Forbidden Area! I think, despite the fact she's deaf and partly blind, she was tempted by the smell of wet ground. I had to keep racing over and (gently) scooping her up and taking her back in the Allowed Area for Off-lead Dogs.

It's been a long time since old Bonnie came with us to our lovely walking spot, Darebin Parklands. Penny loves Bonnie and still respects her - I was delighted with the way Penny held herself back to a dead-slow pace as we walked to the park. Even though I mostly carried Bonnie, it seemed kindest to let her stroll part of the way and smell the smells.

Once in the park, Penny raced around enjoying the strange green stuff sprouting so quickly from the previously parched ground.



Bonnie enjoyed the green stuff too, but more sedately.



And then it was time for an old, old lady to sleep away the afternoon and build up her strength.

dogs walk in the lovely rain in Darebin Parklands

Rain, lovely rain has been falling in drought-stricken Melbourne for the last twenty- four hours.

We set off to see how it has affected the Darebin creek in our parkland - and found the creek is reaching the top of its banks. Our favorite swimming hole usually looks like this:



But today it looked like this:



In the second photo you can see just the top of the rocks on the left of the first photo.

The creek looked rather scary so we kept Penny on lead along the path, even though it's an off-lead area. I'm glad we did, because the ball she was holding in her mouth dropped into the raging waters and she lunged after it. It took a bit of convincing to get her to acknowledge that it was gone for good!

When we got to the bridge we usually cross to get back home we realised we'd have to take the long route today:



That's the bridge in the centre of the picture, surrounded by the junk that came down with the flood waters.

And guess what? As we made our way along the path, what did we see?



Yes, our tennis ball, caught in the flotsam!

We saw other dogs walking with their people, but it seemed as if only dog walkers were out braving the rain.

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.