After an extended dry spell the sound of raindrops on our roof was music to my ears. As each drop fell my heart danced with delight as I imagined the parched earth sucking in the moisture and breathing out newly emerging pasture growth in a few weeks’ time. Rain in autumn means we’ll be able to sow our winter pastures into moist soils.
Then the rain gauge overflowed once, then twice, announcing the 300th and then the 400th millimetre of rain in three short days. The immediate pleasure was replaced by the confirmation of a potentially hazardous flood warning. Low lying land was inundated, streams and dams filled.
Cattle on the low country were evacuated. Too much rain means we’ll be unable to get tractors on the land to sow for a while yet. This is the very real threat of living on a floodplain.
Without this cycle we wouldn’t enjoy the green fertile flats that make our alluvial valley so beautiful.