A cloud is a cloud is a cloud…
As many Aussie have already seen on the news, or experienced first hand, it’s a tad dry beyond the city limits at present.
So weird that we could be almost washed away in the first two months of this year, and yet parched just 8 months later it’s as dry as a wooden god. (Or insert your own ‘dry as’ analogy here – I’m keeping it relatively family friendly!)
The skies have been unrelentingly blue lately, with every cloud checked for possibilities. And our house paddock, once a sea of vibrant greenness, is now very sepia and dusty… 
The green you see in the foreground is an area outside the houseyard where the truck gets washed out – a favourite snack spot for horses and bulls! Some big decisions about stocking rates will be made here soon, if some decent rain doesn’t come our way… many are worse off than us of course, and I do count our blessings for the body of dry grass remaining in most paddocks, and our access to the river on one side of our property.
Today I had to take an unscheduled drive to a town an hour-and-a-half from home (to the dentist – oh joys) and took in not only the dryness of the countryside, but also the clouds looming in the background. When it’s very dry, bushies get all superstitious about rain as each cloud formation teases then evaporates before our very eyes. (Mother Nature is a massive tease sometimes!)
All the ‘signs’ of rain are noted: spying black cockatoos, black ants getting active in kitchens, and (my husband’s favourite) GETTING WET. None of these things were noted on my drive.
After my very interesting, informative and slightly uncomfortable session with the dentist, and with the lower right section of my lip refusing to do as it was told, I headed for home. I was astonished to see this on my windscreen as I drove.
Realising there was a fair chance I might scare it away, I instagrammed it anyway! (Had to have a record of the moment in case it doesn’t happen again soon).
And what happened? It stopped. The moment I took the pic. Yuh. This is how supertitions start, Mother Nature!
And you know, I was thinking how I rarely take photos of the dry. It’s harder sometimes to to find the beauty when you know animals are doing it tougher… I tend to zoom and crop the sepia right out of the shot.
Then I realised, as usual, it’s all how you look at it…
Dry paddock with dam. Look closer…
I know. Two divine black swans gracefully gliding on the dam…
Is there anything more sweet and beautiful and peaceful than a swan? Two swans? Two swans and a … duck?
No, apparently three is a crowd. That’s one cranky looking swan there! Nasssty…
And within 20 metres of this Oz-Bush-Does-Monet scene, I saw this…
A wee little turtle… wandering down the road!
A very shy wee little turtle…
Who got moved somewhere slightly safer. I am hoping he was headed for higher ground… Because THAT would mean rain. Right?
Or is that just another superstition?
One thing I do know: I ♥ clouds…
They help make spectacular sunsets like this one this afternoon…
And even decorate a moon like tonight’s rather sweetly…
But my request for a couple of inches of proper heaven-sent H2O stands. (If anyone is listening up there).
My questions to you…
WHAT SIGNS DO YOU LOOK FOR, TO INDICATE RAIN?
WHAT RAIN-INSPIRING SUPERSTITIONS DO YOU BELIEVE IN?
♥
Meeting Max
12 Comments
Anne
A few I have heard are … black cockatoos (how many you see is how many days or how many inches, undecided), ants moving into the house, cattle making camp on the road – not just a few, all of them (laying on the road to keep a spot dry, mare’s tail clouds (a change in the weather, they are the light wispy ones), Kookaburras laughing during the day – outside their normal morning and evening sessions, ants building taller nests – the sides around the hole are taller, turtles moving and I am sure there are many more but the surest sign of all is when after the humidity and the stillness the heavy clouds drop their load. I hope rain comes soon because they are saying it’ll be a hot summer. Love the photos and I think when looking through a camera you can find beauty anywhere even in the browns.
Anne´s last blog post ..Blah
Kelly
I never believe it until I see it! I know it can be raining a mile up the road and never get to my house. Supposedly wildlife are active ahead of a front. Rain was forecast this week so we put it to the test and went fishing. Caught a TON of bass! The much needed rain came the next day (after a dangerously dry summer) and we got over 3″ !
Kelly´s last blog post ..Crockpot soup
Nancy in Iowa
A common superstition (or complaint?) in the States is that if you wash your car, it will rain.
Colin Huggins
Amanda! I can assure you that it has been equally as bloody dry as a Gobi desert skeleton here in Brisbane also. However, the good Lord must have eventually approved of my bizzare rain dances and for 2 hours (yep two hours!!!) it came down, not in the buckets, but the soaking variety. Fresh smelling air accompanied it!
Droopy looking pot plants were moved in a frenzied flurry out for the glorious stuff and I think during this madness of carrying I momentarily forgot about my bad back.
Anyhow two hours of heavenly moisture was better than 2 minutes, unfortunately even though it looked like it had set in, this morning it is back to blue cloudless (almost) skies.
So I guess the neighbours will have to watch my “dancing antics” for a little bit more!!!
I have noticed that there are pot plants on lawns this morning so I wasn’t the only one trying to bust their backs!!!
debby
Colin – you’ve got pot plants? Dear heavens. Did not peg you for a cannabis user. 😀
debby´s last blog post ..His Mysterious Ways.
Colin Huggins
Debby!!! This assumption must be quickly corrected, goodness a “family oriented” rural blog!
1. My pot plants do not even contain – marigolds, so there is buckleys chance of such a plant as that other “M” word – Marijuana – being decorative on my front road overlooking small balcony!
2. I have tried the stuff – with friends of a wedding party group prior to the wedding in Carrollton, GA. USA. Sitting around a ring with a bucket full of “bloody mary” beverage and passing a “whatever” around with twizzers, did not appeal to me.
3. Then on another visit to the grand state of Georgia on a “white river rafting” expedition,just north of Atlanta, most of the young males as we all were in those “dizzy” days of youth who were attendees of the groom at said wedding – me being “best man” – for reasons beyond comprehension as I had never tried this “white river rafting before” the “M” stuff and the drinky poos were in the kayak occupied by me. Needless to say on the first lot of rapids, the kayak went ‘turkey’ and the “supplies” are now somewhere in the depths of that river – never to be retrieved. I was not the “flavour” of the month with my friends of Atlanta! As a matter of fact, all Aussies were deemed to be quite useless! I was only let into their confidence again when I did the ‘shouting’ of refreshments at a local, ten cent tavern of questionable repute close by to place of said “accident”.
4. My third go, with reluctance, was on Kings Beach, Caloundra in about 1981. I partook of the terrible “weed” with a friend of my then girlfriend – the person who supplied said “weed” was a trainee Federal Police Officer. I darn near drowned in the surf – end of my association with said weed.
I hope my clarification has put to rest what is in my watered by rain pots!!
No sign of rain here today in Brisbane so my “pots” are back on the balcony and being in a magnanimous mood I forgive you, Debby,
for your assumption on my pots, so no need to put on the “sackcloth” and do penance.
Cheers from the now anti-“M” weed.
debby
Oh, Colin, I knew what you meant. It just sounded funny to my American ears. We call them potted plants here, although people are sometimes refered to as ‘potted’ which means they are inebriated beyond all sense. It made me laugh to think of you hauling your pot plants out to the front yard. Our ‘pot heads’ here tend to hide the evidence.
debby´s last blog post ..His Mysterious Ways.
debby
I can state it for a fact, if I have an umbrella with me, it will not rain. If I’m bustling about, esp. on a day when I’m trying to look my best, I will be rained on. Multiple times. It’s how it works.
debby´s last blog post ..His Mysterious Ways.
KAddy
The storm birds have been screaming but to no avail…..I did see a turtle on the side of the road today (no where near water) – unfortunately his quest for higher land was not as successful as your little turtle….but still a sign non the less 🙂 ps love the sun set
Bill
I get a headache and swollen eyes; then it rains.
Andrew
Ants moving and on a mission. Never fails.
Andrew´s last blog post ..The birthday
Jayne
Cockatoos and kookaburras are supposed to herald rain…then again, they just squawk and laugh for the heck of it most times 😛
Jayne´s last blog post ..G’day, lovelies