Rain

We've had a fair bit of rain recently. There's been quite a bit of flooding around the state. Quite a bit around the Ballarat area.  We are midway up a fairly large hill; it would have to be quite a catastrophic flood that affected us.  But other places have not been as lucky (or as high!)

When we left Melbourne yesterday, after a very wet and gloomy day on Tuesday, it looked like this:

Mount Helen didn't look like that when we got here!!  It was foggy and rainy and gloomy and cold and very definitely not very nice.

Sam asked to go for a walk.  I put him in the back yard - very briefly.  He walked out and turned immediately around and came straight back in.  He was definitely NOT going out in that!  The day didn't improve so despite his begging, pleading, beseeching and sulking, there was no walk.  He was not a very gruntled dog. Mind you, he wouldn't have been gruntled if I had taken him out.  He doesn't like rain, wind and cold any more than I do!

He made us pay for it, though.  He was deeply reluctant to get on his bed when we turned in.  He managed to open the sliding door between our bit of the house and the rest of it at about midnight and came hurtling into our room and stood over us, wanting attention - and a walk.  I put him back near his bed and shut the sliding door firmly.  So he banged at it.  So I put him down in the lounge room and shut him in there.  He devoted the rest of the night to trashing the lounge room.  Not that he actually destroyed anything.  He just swiped it all off the tables, couches, shelves and rearranged it all over the floor. At about 4:30 he started banging on the door again. I let him in to our room.  No, thank you.  He didn't want to sit on the bed. He wanted breakfast.  At 4:30!!  I would say that I relented at 5:00 and got up and fed him.  But it wasn't really me relenting, more him nagging until I caved in.  The Builder also arose and made us a cup of tea.  Peace reigned.  Briefly.

Sam came back in after his breakfast and settled on the bed.  The Builder got up to get another cup of tea, tripped over something on his way back and fell on the bed, narrowly avoiding squashing Sam.  He did not drop his cup of tea, but he couldn't get back up while still holding it.  So I got up to help.  Sam took advantage of that to spread himself all over the bed.  The Builder and I gave up at that point, put our dressing gowns on and retired to the (tidied) lounge room, leaving Sam in possession of our bed.

Sam is not usually so disruptive over night.  I wondered if he was cold, for it was not a very warm night and The Builder had complained of being cold in the night.  Lindsey, cruising in Alaska/Canada, wondered if he was lonely and/or hungry.  Ian, also cruising in Alaska/Canada, postulated the distant presence of a thunder storm.  The Builder thinks Sam just hates him.   I don't know.  But fortunately, after a very foggy and damp start to the day, the weather cleared a bit and we took him for a nice walk this afternoon and he is ever so much happier.  He is now catching up on his lost sleep on the lounge room couch.

Out on our walk in Buninyong this afternoon

This is usually a quiet and unobtrusive mini-creek

And here the ducks are usually wandering around or sunbathing - not swimming!