Gauging the Rain

Wettest July

for many a year

enough already

 I’ve been collecting rainfall data for the Bureau of Meteorology for more than nine years now, and I can now confirm the long faces and complaints about the weather were justified. Our little village in the lee of the mountains is sheltered much of the time from the worst elements, but we still receive our fair share of gale force winds and a decent lashing of rain now and again. Our rainfall might be paltry compared to other parts of Tassie, but with 175.6ml, this was the wettest July since I’ve been taking daily rain gauge readings, mainly due to three rain events during the month.

The backyards are squishy, the Village Green is squooshy, wet leaves sit in the gutters and clog the drains. Buckets are positioned carefully to catch the drips in vulnerable buildings where roofs need maintenance, and that reminds me, when it’s dry and safe enough I must get up a ladder and check my roof gutter which keeps overflowing.

Birds have this uncanny habit of pecking moss out of my roof gutter near the front door, and depositing it in clumps on my timber walkway. I’m not sure if they’re trying to remind me I'm sadly lacking in my performance when it comes to home maintenance, or whether they’re just looking for grubs. All I need for them to do is relocate to the back corner of the house and remove whatever’s clogging up the system there.

Shouldn’t be too hard.