It's Raining!

G'Day,
The weather man said there would be rain today. He said it last week and I didn't hold my breath but yep, it is actually raining. And on the day he said it would. Bloody amazing!!!!!!! It started about 6 this morning and has not stopped yet. Its almost 11.30 now. We had a nice bit of rain 2 days ago too. The news man said that they didn't expect enough to stop the allocation of irrigation water to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area farmers (M.I.A.) , being withdrawn on the 31st of this month, so they are still very worried for their livelihoods. I have heard that lake Eyre has water in it and is filling up which is also a positive sign of more rain coming for us. Cross your fingers for us. Lake Eyre is a huge dry salt lake in central south Australia. Dry most years anyway, it fills up when the cyclone season rain is big enough to drain down into it from northern Australia. In the Wagga paper this morning it also said that the stock market has been improving with the end of the latest El Nino cycle. One thing with the rain though , it has shown us this morning just how badly the guttering around our house needs replacing. It leaks and overflows badly. Not a problem we have had for quite a few years with the drought.
I was woken up at 5.00 this morning by a noise at the side gate and went outside to have a look, well, what I could see wasn't much at that time of the morning, as the torch was safely kept in the car. It wasn't my poor senile Freddy dog as I had expected, but the big white and tan pet rabbit from next door. It was trying to get into the back yard so it could attack my garden and eat my silver beet that I've been nursing along since I planted it a few weeks ago. No bloody way. The neighbors can't keep it in it's cage and it's a bit mad so they don't try to catch it. I caught it once and gave it back to them and found out the hard way that it is quite capable of defending itself. It was back out of it's cage the same day. I caught 2 of the doves they let out and I don't want their bloody rabbit as well. Nice people and good neighbors but not really responsible pet owners. Both the doves and bunnies easily survive in the wild here and are an introduced species that become feral.
I am looking forward to the trip to Melbourne which is only a couple of days away. We go on Wednesday, coming back on Saturday. This afternoon we are going into Wagga to go to the annual food and wine festival. Weather permitting, as its held outdoors around the civic center. There is live music and local wines and food stalls from the many different ethnic communities which have now settled in our area. There will be Indian, Egyptian, Lebanese, African, and modern Australian foods that I know of. Should be good, but I would rather have the rain if we can still get it. It is also birthday drinks at my second son's house as he and his house mates birthdays are just a few days apart and are celebrating together. He will be 23, on the 27th. He wanted a set of plain black seat covers for his car that he could have embroidered but we could not find any that did not already have something on them. We might be able to find some in Melbourne.
I also need to get groceries for everyone for while we are away. My Mum loves to get into the grocery shop so I have to take her with me. It keeps her happy but drives me mad because she takes an hour and a half to do what I could do by myself in 15 minutes and I come out with lollies, cakes, biscuits, chocolate and soft drinks that I don't like to have around but she fights me to have. Oh well better get on with it, I can't win, it's a give in or have a temperamental unhappy mum to put up with situation.
Bye Love Linda.