Today it's been very wet on the east coast of NSW. After a dry winter and with talk of the desal plant at Kurnell being activated to make up any shortfall, the heavens have opened and an enormous amount of water has fallen. This is the land "of droughts and flooding rains" after all. Today there are bush fires in Queensland and watery inundations in NSW. Last week there was snow in Victoria. Yes, its that kind of country.

Even so, the media manages to lose its mind when a major weather event happens nowadays. All else is forgotten as a parade of tedious journalists report from all the usual places, variously astonished to see that large quantities of water tend to pool, causing flash floods. Cars get stuck, trees topple, umbrella invert - you get the picture - which has all been happening since, well, it began raining on earth about a billion years ago. But still they are agog.

In My Country, the poet Dorothea Mackellar wrote, (in addition to that quotation above),

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.


I can tell you that she had the weather just right. And I'm guessing she would have taken the to-do of today in her stride.

To add to this day of drenching, this pic from the car park at Springwood Station. A "furious devout drench", indeed.