This was the picture that greeted me this morning, a rainbow on the balcony, just outside my bedroom window. It didn't stay long, but just enough seconds for me to roll over, grab the camera, and try to capture its beauty. It's small, but if you strain your eyes you can just make out a rainbow. A rainbow here means so much more than a dazzling array of colour. It signaled a break in the hot and dry conditions that have ravaged our state recently.
I won't complain about the heat, yes it is shriveling the local trees and causing an early autumn's worth of leaf drop, my tomatoes are sunmarked and many a small plant has spontaneously combusted on thew balcony. A friend described yesterday's intense heat as 'like aiming a hairdryer at one's face, and turning it on to full'. As I said though, I won't complain. For the loss of a few plants on the balcony pales into insignificance when I think of all the lives lost in the bushfires still raging in this state. The pictures of the devastation were the second image I saw today, after the rainbow that it. They are all over the news. Despite the mass coverage it is still pretty incomprehensible. I recieved a text from a friend this morning, letting me know that she was all right, and that her property remained intact. She said she could see the flames on the crest of her hill but luckily they remained at a distance. She also remarked on the eeriness of late afternoon yesterday, when the smoke became so thick it blanketed her property and day became night. However she escaped, hence the horrifyingly poetic text message. Other people, many other people, were not so lucky.
So instead of whinging about my paltry lost plants, I just look at that picture. Not of bushfire ravaged Victoria, but of the balcony rainbow. The rainbow that signals hope and regeneration. The rain that caused it was short lived, I think even calling it a shower is going overboard. But it is a beginning, it is a start, and it is a positive, and looking for the positives is how the balcony gardener works.
2 comments:
It's very frightening to see parts of Australia being ravaged by fire and other parts being washed away by floods. I saw it on the news last night and again on CBC radio this morning. I will offer up hopes and prayers that things will improve soon with no more loss of life.
I heard about the terrifying fires that are raging in your part of the world while laying in bed and listening to the radio this morning. My heart goes out to everyone affected by them. I am quite familiar with brush fires, indeed we had many thousands of acres burn this last summer not far from here. I watched and breathed the smoke for weeks. Fortunatley, not many lives were lost. I hope that the flames are soon extinguished. My thoughts and hopes are with you all.
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