WEATHER

A quick note on weather -- as I've mentioned elsewhere it's changeable. On Saturday afternoon I walked the Aboriginal Heritage Trail here, and went from overcast to rain to snow -- astonishing to have snow fall when you can't see your breath! It was actually lovely to see and didn't impede the walking at all.

On Sunday rain arrived. Not that it hasn't been here already, but in force-- I woke about 3:am to it hitting the roof, and it kept up heavy and steady until mid or late afternoon. A wonderful excuse to stay indoors, feed the fire, read, write, think. In the late afternoon I went for a walk, almost no rain falling then, to Watersmeet where the Hugel and Cuvier rivers flow together -- both rivers were running fast and high, gallons of water pouring down, washing around trees at their edges. The noise was loud and wonderful.

My computer was delivered late last night (Monday) and with it a copy of The Mercury -- and I learned that the heavy rain here had been part of a huge storm that swept over large parts of the island, toppling trees and power lines, throwing yachts onshore. Something like 33,000 people without power -- and in Hobart winds got up to 93 km per hour. Or, my note about this is illegible, perhaps it was only 83 ... Hobart has had about 662 mm of rain so far this year -- their mean annual rainfall is 622.4 ...

Yesterday, Monday, sunshine arrived and it's still here today, Tuesday -- so I'll head off on a walk for the afternoon.