It's Saturday after the Warrandyte Festival Parade and we are at Bloom's Road, temporary residence of our three German backpacker daughter Lena, Julia & Isobel.They have prepared lunch for us and afterwards we are going up to the farm which
they haven't seen since it burned down. As we have decided to go to SA for a bit of a break this will be the last time we see them before they go back to Wertheim. There are a few tears and hugs and they present Ros with A mug stand, complete with mugs to replace the one she lost in the fire and the Leonard Cohen CD from his recent tour. Ros is speechless.
The trip to the farm is pretty quiet and even quieter once we pass Mitton's Bridge. Although curious, I decided not to ask the girls about how they are feeling, then or later.Once at the farm, everyone wanders around a bit, the girls searching for things in the ruins of their car, me to try and locate the star picket removing tool. I can't see it in any of the places I expected to find it, although I am able to retrieve the dolly (tool for bashing in star pickets), from what remains of the tractor shed.
We go down to start the pump and being a bit impatient, I loosen the pump cylinder to help induce priming. The water starts to spurt from around the edges of the plug and becuase I'm still wearing gloves, I can't get it threaded properly. My fingers slip and suddenly there's four feet of
water in the air and and on top of me. It's really cold but I have to stand there, close the throttle and hit the kill button, all the while being covered in freezing, grotty water. After what seems like 45 minutes and not 40 seconds, I get it stopped, reseat the plug and restart the pump. Ros and Isobel hang on to the business end and get on with watering everything in sight.Dripping wet and now just pleasantly cool because it's as hot as, I turn around to see my friend Phil from tech horticulture classes, rolling into the driveway to collect a slightly burned heritage gate for his achievable garden entry and a roll of chicken wire to help Lyn create some aspect of her presentation.
Phil is like the landscape, quite devestated. As he says, "I had no idea it was this bad?"
A final look around and a couple more photo's so the girls will have before, during and after reminders of their Australian bushfire experience.
Hi Quent,
ReplyDeleteJust back in touch with cyberspace and catching up with your news - you have been so busy and so much is happening - but it sounds like a few things are starting to go right. Glad to hear that you are taking a break - I hope it gives you and Ros a chance to catch your breath and switch off for a bit. We so enjoyed our day with you - it was just like old times. Enjoy Kapunda and love to you both. Sue (not Kate as the profile says!)
Hi Sue - this is just a very short acknowledgement. I wrote a really long one and it got gobbled up by the cyberspace gremlins. Kapunda was good but not all that restful. Next time we'll go somewhere that we've never been to or go to Perth where everyone has caught up with the story.
ReplyDeleteBlogging starts again tomorrow. - Love Q & R