Storm ( 2 ).

Storm ( 2 ).

Posted on 29 Jul, 2008 9 comments

The build up season ( building up to the wet monsoon ) is always hot and humid and we hear the same weather forcast for the following day: Late storms for Darwin. Nearly every morning the sun is out and around lunchtime the clouds move in. By 4 pm the rumbling or strong winds start. Garden leaves blow all back on the veranda’s and when it really sets in, they even twirl around in the garden, sometimes lifted up in the air. This particular day was worse than we had experienced before. The storm was HUGE. Luckily palmtrees are very resilient, they can bend and bow in all directions. The Woolly butts ( Eucalytptus miniata ) are not so lucky, they easily loose branches, even large ones. It got very dark after lunch and I had just finished clearing the table outside, when it really came up. We just stood there nailed to the veranda, watching in disbelieve nature playing havoc in my garden. The dogs were not so brave, they were inside, somewhere in the hallway or in the bathroom. Funny how they always find the best spots, where you could expect least trouble. I have never seen so many branches fly through the air, snapping off like match sticks, leaves everywhere. Then came the rain…...heavy as usual, pelting on the veranda, as it was blowing in by the ferocious wind. We went inside too, closed all the doors and windows and waited. And waited, whilst standing behind the closed glass sliding doors. It took at least one hour. It was still a bit windy, but the rain had passed. The lawns were sopping wet. A lake had formed at the back of the property, where it is lowest. I put on some boots and braved myself over and in between all the debris. What a mess! Where to start? I ventured over to the swimming pool where a huge branch was lying on the side, with the leafy crown haning in the water. Leaves were inside and floating on top. Well, it looked more like a lake than a garden pool. Hubby and I just started, it didn’t matter where. I picked up the end of a branch and dragged it to another and piled it on top. My canna lilies were flattened, just like some of the shrubs. All of a sudden I got bitten. I hadn’t seen them before, but the green ants had somehow been stirred up by the storm and were becoming quite aggressive. I couldn’t even pick up a branch or stick or twigs, without getting all these green ants all over me. Anyway, you’ve got to act real fast in that case, so like mad we were trying to make a bit of a way through all that debris, as we had to let the dogs out by now. In those days we didn’t have Cully yet, but the old dog, who had bad eyesight, would have bumped into those branches. We cleared the back lawn right near the house in about an hour. Then I called the dogs and watched the old one. And what did I find on the dogs afterwards? Ticks, brown ticks. Now I had not seen them before in the garden and they had never had them. So, instead of cleaning up the garden I sat there ridding the dogs of ticks. These are not the Queensland paralisis ticks, thank goodness, but they can still make them sick. They even had them on their ears and in the fold of the earlobes, in between their toes. When I finally was convinced they were clean, I put them back inside. By now it was round 5pm and time to feed them. The wind had died down. Hubby and I decided to call it quits and carry on the next day. After all, it could be sunny and we could see the ants and ticks better. So we did. The next day we went in the garden again, full of energy and determination to clear this lot as soon as possible. Best not to cry over spilt milk. We noticed to our amazement the ants and ticks had all gone. I could not believe it. Where had they gone? I will never know. Probably in trees, where they usually live. We took at least 8 trailer loads of debris to the tip, in the next few days. We do have a chainsaw ( thanks to our life on the farm ) and we worked hard. I raked and raked and raked, picked up piles of leaves, used them for mulch under the trees and shrubs, cut broken plants neatly back etc. etc. I was even enjoying this. A big challenge. Oh well, life would be boring if we didn’t get those storms every now and then. You’d be amazed how quickly everything had grown back, as if nothing had happened that day. We had plenty of storms, strong winds after that, but nothing like this one. Native trees always loose their leaves the whole year round, so I was often raking. Every day I was picking up underneath or out of the palms, dead fronds and piling them up to be loaded on the trailer at a later date for the green tip. That was just part of Darwin. Life in the tropics is full of surprises and you learn to deal with them as you go along.

More blog posts by Marguerite