It was a dark and stormy night

 ... as they say.

The rain started around 8pm, just as Lindsey and I were getting back from Melbourne. The wind picked up shortly after.

There was a LOT of wind. Brandy and Whiskey were unimpressed and ran up and down the house, behaving as though there was another cat or a possum in the garden. There wasn't. It was just the wind, blowing things about.

I worried that the mighty gum tree over the side fence might decide to throw a branch or even itself at my little house. (It's not really all that little, but it would be the underdog in a fight with the gum tree)

The wind and the rain lasted for hours.

But in the end, it was not the gum tree over my side fence that blew down. It was the Cootamundra wattle at Lindsey's place (These are Lindsey's photos):

Broken at the base

Narrowly missed Lindsey's car!

"My" trees are still standing:

Base of the ancient gum tree

And its canopy, towering over other,
much younger trees

"My" wattle, just over the fence.
Not a Cootamundra, but also
not sleeping on the fence!

After such a stormy night, it has been a rather lovely day. So much so that the market was absolutely packed, the playgrounds and botanical gardens around the lake were filled with people and the walking tracks were very busy. So was the parking. We had to park up behind the gardens, rather than alongside the lake.

The market, abuzz with shoppers and browsers

It was busy at the Avalon nursery, where we went to buy new wattle trees. We had to park outside rather than in the car park. Fortunately not so busy at the Mount Clear shops, where we stopped for lunch, although busy enough. The cafe had quite a few [people in it. But at least parking wasn't an issue.

I think, after the storms of last night, people might be thinking thoughts of spring. I believe that winter is due back tomorrow