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Our Drought has finally broken.

Drought has been enduring but the good news is, especially for farmers, that it has broken. Winter crops, mainly cereal is sown and has emerged. Ground is wet but not a lot has flowed into storage dams. That’s a worry. The other worry is will there be sufficient rain in the spring to finish the crop.

Town folk, especially gardeners are delighted too. And the native creatures likewise. Frogs have learned to swim after 3 years of wallowing in the dust. The ducks are likewise learning. These fellows in the picture are wood ducks. They roost and nest in the trees. Technically they are geese but mostly get called ducks.

Today is the shortest day of the year and we all look forward to longer days although it won’t warm until late August. The mornings are in low single digits, sometimes a frost. Some days are overcast and that is oppressive. We are sooks aren’t we. Yet in summer when temps rise past 40C we think winter is not all that bad.

I will never forget work in the winter. Aeroplanes didn’t have heaters (nor aircon for summer). Those creature comforts weren’t offered until about the mid 1990’s. It was okay whilst the sun was out but on an overcast day it was miserably cold. Each time I’d land for another load I’d climb out and run awhile or do exercises. Even that was futile. Puffer coats weren’t available then. In some respects those were not the “good old days” but yet in many other ways yes they were.