Snow Damage

I awoke to a warm nor’wester. By sunrise the temperature was up to 6ºC. Best of all, the water pipes were free and I had hot water for the first time in two days. The first thing I did was to have a shower. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

The familiar thaw has set in at last, the steady drip, drip all round the house. Going out the back door to hang out, and bring in, the washing was like dashing through a waterfall. The warm wind dried all the washing.

When I was hanging out the washing close to the sugar water dispenser a female bellbird came  to feed. I was less than 3m from her. Like the waxeyes she dipped her long brush tongue into the syrup and quickly looked about for danger between sips. She ignored me standing close by.


The snow was no longer hard and slippery and I was able to go to places in my garden for the first time in a week to survey the damage. This slim, 3 metre high Pittosporum was an example of what I found. The top is snapped off and all the branches are stripped. The same happened to a much bigger wattle. Everywhere there are branches on the ground, or worse still, hanging out of reach to die and look ugly. The Buddleia looks as though it got in the way of an artillery barrage. Most of my bushes 2 metres high or less are still partly or wholly buried. Not under 2m of snow, of course, but the bushes have fallen flat and been covered.

My son dug my car out of the snow and cleared a track to the gate. If it doesn’t freeze tomorrow I might be able to go out.