We are having flooding all up and down the coastal area where I live. There has been loss of life further up in the Hunter Region but here is is all nuisance flooding. Natural disasters bring out the best in people and in our area many people are helping their neighbours and maybe meeting them for the first time. I am lucky, so far little damage apart from an overflowing gutter on the back section of the house that brought water into my back room where the computer is usually sitting. It was sitting on my bed at the time so no damage apart from the desk itself which is pineboard but seems okay so far. I am typing on my laptop on the old sewing machine cupboard that once belonged to my dear Mum. It is not quite the right angle but okay.

We don't have water at the moment as we are on the side of a hill and I guess the pumping station is now also without power but I do have stored water so the neighbours are coming over with buckets to get water for "flushing" and simple tasks like washing hands. Funny how we just take the supply of power and water for granted. My tank water isn't drinking water so we are all living on fruit juice instead of coffee. So we will all be much calmer. Further north of us there is serious flooding so we are well off by comparison.

All of this makes me think about the future again. I know a lot of our retirement villages are in low lying areas and that will be a problem if our rain continues but so far all is soggy but navigable. Tomorrow I am going to have a drive around the area if the rain eases off as is predicted and see where the roads can be cut off and where the flooding is, I like to know how areas cope with rainfall, don't want to be cut off if I choose to go with the retirement village option which I may do as it means all the maintenance is covered in the basic fee. Looking around here there are going to be a few handyman hours to pay for to get the yard back into shape. And also hiring a tree lopper as I can see some of the gum trees need a trim to make them safe..

I have so much leaf litter you can't actually see the grass but that will be easy to rake up when the fine dry weather comes back again, which inevitably it will. The big excitiement was the loss of two trees on the back of the house two doors over. For those of you who remember the fence debate here they were the last of the tall pines and having shallow roots they succumbed to the flow of water and fell sideways across the disputed fence and into the yard next to me. The next door neighbour called in a favour and soon had the tree loppers in his yard chopping and chipping so the trees were soon just piles of sawdust and mulch. There is now a gap in the fence on the other side so I am sure he will as efficiently see to that problem as soon as the rains are over.

Will it continue to rain tomorrow? It seems the weather forecasters disagree on that. I hope the crisis is over and we can get back to normal again. But for some the devastation will be too much and there will be deaths, always is after a traumatic event like this.There ave been the sound of ambulances all day and one of our church ladies was rushed to hospital overnight due to a heart attack. I will visit her as soon as the roads are clear again. Apparently there have been a lot of trees across the roads in some of our tree lined roads so it is not easy to get around the area right now.

So my friends, if you see reports on the news of our floods and the deaths just know that I and my family and friends are all safe so far. Just keep us in your prayers till this is all over.