Rain has officially finished - for now. + evening edit

I recorded just 0.5mm of "rain" yesterday. Probably in fact the result of a heavy dew. But moisture is moisture.
But I am pleased to show the first full 60 KM view I have been able to see for the last 10 days.

A full range view into the Shoalhaven Valley
Some sign of mist on the
ridge on the way up to Sassafras.
That is approximately 60 KMs away.

 Sunny days are great for plants and animals (including me and my fellows, and Lulu).  She can rejoice in sitting outside at Cafe Pirouette this morning.

EVENING EDIT.
 
Here is a distant photo of "Mountain Ducks" (Chestnut-breasted Shelducks or "Australian Shelducks". I found them on this same paddock on 1 July last year. Synchronicity? I got much better photos last year - but today they got spooked by traffic and flew to the far side of the paddock. But the bird is still recognisable (if you click on the image to enlarge it). There were two birds, a pair, but the female is hiding behind a clump of long grass. The male has its bold white neck ring clearly visible.

Australian Shelduck in paddock
on the way to Moss Vale

And now an evening view of the same distant panorama, looking over the Upper Shoalhaven valley, towards Sassafras.

A zoomed image, in last afternoon light.
The hills are blue, and it is good to see them
at 60 Km distance - that's not bad.

The far ridge goes up to Sassafras.
That is on Main Road 92
from Nowra to Nerriga and on to Braidwood.
 

Tree Dahlia - probably its last days of flowering.

I love my Tree Dahlia. It is the most optimistic plant I know of. (I am embarrassed to see that I have used that line over many years). Oh well.

Tree Dahlia flowering up and over other shrubs.
It needs some protection from winds,
otherwise, it gets flattened.
Several stems on left and right have fallen over
but the flowers will still open.

Every winter, it gets cut back to the ground (or under it, technically). Then in mid-spring it starts all over again, growing fast (imagine Jack's Beanstalk plant). Then in April, it starts to open its first flowers. Today it was in something approaching full flower. In old money, these flowers are over 10 feet off the ground.

Tree Dahlia stems holding many flowers
as seen from my Back Deck.

But late this afternoon, it started to rain. If the rain comes on heavily, the flowers will bow to the ground under the weight of the water it has to carry on its 3 metre plus stems.
Normally its enemy is frost. But we have not had any here, yet, because the long dry autumn mild spell. I will know more tomorrow, or the day after.

Tree Dahlia flower

That is a shot of a single flower (as best I could manage, by holding one stem over). The flowers are simple (open) whereas most Dahlia flowers are "double". But as far as I know Tree Dahlias are always delicate flowers, like this. Some are white. A heavy flower, such as the "Exhibition" Dahlias, which the Dahlia people rave about, would surely be too heavy for the stems to carry more than three metres above ground, and catching the wind.

I have a fairly dull Japanese Maple
But today it was looking charming
in the grey light of this afternoon.

Late Summer Orchids are flowering their heads off.

We had a dry spring and summer, until it rained in late January (the result of a Tropical Cyclone washing down the NSW coast as am ex-cyclone). Locally, Carrington Falls had all but ceased to flow. Then it suddenly kicked back into gear. The groundwater is the important point here. Tiny Orchids need moisture in the soil, and if that is not there, the Orchids will not move.
I got 177 mm in 3 days in late January and 227 in 4 days in late February. The bush has bounced back.
And now the summer/autumn Orchids are blooming, whereas they were not even visible two weeks ago.

These little orchids, some as small as 50 cm (2 inches high) are often hard to find in the grass.
One tends to try to remember where they were last seen and to mark them with natural features, such as a couple of bits of broken tree branches, or small stones. Nothing too obvious, of course.

Corunastylis rufa
Red Midge Orchid.

Corunastylis fimbriata
Fringed Midge Orchid

Corunastylis sagittifera

Corunastylis densa

Speculantha parviflora
Tiny Greenhood - seeming the "Type"
of this confusing genus.

Brown form of Speculantha parviflora.
As yet not named as a separate species.

Close-up of brown form of
Speculantha parviflora (as yet un-named species)
Not the differences between this and the true species above.

• gentle curved line of "sinus" (front of flower)
  it does not have the bulging front.
• These flowers start out dark brown, almost black on top
• They age to a brighter red colour on the hood.
  See this image of a tight group with old and fresh flowers

Lovely "Spiral Orchid"
Spiranthes australis

Nice triple-flowered specimen of
Eriochilus cucullatus

Close-up of Eriochilus cucullatus

Carrington Falls running properly again

The people of Robertson are very pleased to see the rivers and creeks running again, and to hear the Frogs croaking and the Crickets and birds singing their little hearts out.

Further to my post about Carrington Falls being nearly bone dry (and that was just last week), I decided to check it today.
 
You will not be surprised to know I got 177mm of rain, (or 6.97 inches) of rain over the last 3 days. Most fell on Sunday afternoon and evening. But I had other things to do on Monday and Tuesday - besides it was raining intermittently anyway - so I wanted to get the full extent of the "rainfall event".

Carrington Falls Wednesday 30 Jan
Flowing as it normally does.

Last week, I showed the rock bar- all but dry.
Below is the same view today.

This is the "Old Ford"
It was used by the local Timber cutters
as their crossing point,
before the Bridge was built.
Contrast with the "dry rock bar" image linked above.

The level of flow in the river was obviously higher on Monday, as a friend of min, Kellie, posted a short video on Facebook today of the Kangaroo River at the Bridge, filmed on Monday afternoon.
You can view this if you have a Facebook account.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4336686216971

Either way, this is not a "High" levels of flow, by any measure. That fact can be attributed to how dry the region has been over the last 6 months, and hence, the amount of water the soil and rock beds can absorb. I have observed previously, that we got about 12 inches of rain in June 2007, followed by a further 6 inches (from memory),  and it was the smaller, subsequent rainfall event which triggered a flood in the Nepean River. Point is, the first lot of good rain filled the minute gaps in the soil and rocks, and only then would our local soil conditions produce enough "run-off" to cause a flood.
That is not the case everywhere in Australia - as we can see this last week.
I know, for example that much smaller "rainfall events" around Canberra and Queanbeyan can produce flash floods. But their soils are mostly old decomposed granite - not the porous basalt soils of Robertson.

It has forgotten how to rain in Robertson.

Five mm of rain fell on 1 April, prior to that we have to go back to 17 March for the previous decent rain (64mm).
The country is starting to dry out.

And now the cold has set in.

Winter is coming.

After missing out on summer, I feel cheated.

We had two pleasant weeks of "summer" in Autumn.

Is that it?