What's flowering: Queensland

[max2]

Travelled through Landsborough today - the Buckinghamias are in full bloom.
And Bill, sta safe and dry up there!

[max2]

Here it is!
Bees seem to love them: http://malleedesign.com.au/one-of-the-best-street-trees/

[max2]

We took some honey off today. far from ideal but I'm running out of time. Eventually the rain stopped me.
Just a few mm but enough for the day. maybe more on Monday.
No Bloodwood in this lot...
I wonder how Bill  is going? Crazy rain up North.

[Bamboo]

I see they have opened the dam, 2000 cu m per sec and are going to keep up that flow till tomorrow morning...scary stuff. Going to be huge loss of homes and property. I think Bill is out of town a bit so hopefully he is OK not sure that he is in Townsville though.
Been off and on showers here all day not much in the gauge just annoying stuff.

[eltalia]

Thanks for the thoughts blokes, we are handling it all - likely the best Wet seen in many a year
with Tinneroo spilling over yesterday and well over 2metres of rain here in the past 10days.
You'd know more than us on Townsville district as we lost power Friday and I've had to limit
diesel as this could go on for a while yet as we have another Low above us developing in the Gulf.
So radio only with bold waste getting Internet time. ;-))
Had a break Saturday last for maybe six hours in which the bees at home went like the clappers,
so they are panicking but still alive. The outyard we cannot know as impossible to get there and be
so for a while yet.
Like an island, we are fine in getting by sooo enjoy the Peace (posting respite) while it lasts, hey. ;-))

Cheers.

Bill

[CoolBees]

May God bless and be with you Bill.

[max2]

Bill, we miss you and all the best. Chin up!

[eltalia]

Old hands at this Big Wet stuff we know to be prepared long before
and to stay put once she sets in - if you do move you cut up already
fragile roads and we wont see a grader out here for months. Also as
has happened to many a wanderer the risk of moving out to then be
cutoff getting back home is extreme, and nobody wants to be caught
between creek crossings out here - there aint no Hopalong Cassidy
types cruising by with a trusty rope to tie the truck down with. <g>

It's easing off, just 40mm last night and overcast clear skies this morning.
Bees are flying. All good.... thanks blokes. :-))
Cheers.

Bill

--
PS: for interest in a picture being worth a thousand words I
update with the weather radar link we use. Ravenshoe is a near
enough reference point. Sun is actually out and bright whilst I
write - looking good, real good. ;-))
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR191.loop.shtml#skip

[Bamboo]

Great to hear Bill. Delighted that you and yours are OK...fantastic news. Stay safe.
Cheers
Mark

[max2]

Good news! Thanks Bill and all the best.

[eltalia]

Best news blokes, power restored late yesterday arvo after being told
earlier in the day it wont happen for days. They must have found a 4x4
truck that could do the job. <g>
So the A/C went on to engage in The Battle of the Mold and the Missus
put a smile on her dial.
We are still getting small (40mm) rains at night but I would say the worst
is a done duck - just a matter of waiting it out now. Catching footage of the
Townsville flooding you gotta feel for those blokes. Going to cost zillions to
fix that amount of spoilage up... I expect yet another rise in insurance premiums.
Sun not out yet (today) but it should happen, so all good.

Cheers.

Bill

[max2]

Good news indeed.
It will take a while for the mold to clear.
I find here that 10 min of sunshine and the bees are out

[eltalia]

Good news indeed.
It will take a while for the mold to clear.
I find here that 10 min of sunshine and the bees are out

:on knees:
:hands clasped skywards:

Bring it on - P L E A S E

Overcast but no significant rain and creeks have all dropped, so all good.

Cheers.


Bill

[max2]

Looks like the raintrees are coming out here - a bit early. Bees love them

[eltalia]

Updating our woes (not really) we were able to get to the outyard over the
weekend to find both colonys depleted but alive with both queens having beeen dug out
of their cages -  as I was hoping.
No real action happening but knocking them back to just BCs I am confident they'll make
it on the little forage around the place.
The usual access road will be closed for weeks yet and as the shortcut is a 70km drive
they are on their own for a bit. Lucky we don't do honey, hey. :-)))

Cheers.


Bill

[Bamboo]

Good to hear Bill.
Mate that is some drive!
We are looking at a bit of action this weekend or maybe early next week Bit of wind and some rain. BOM is saying about 500mm over 3 days but there is a forecaster in Maleny who seems to be fairly accurate and he reckons we could be looking at a metre plus. He was spot on with Townsville. Put some 20kg pavers on the lids and they are pretty sheltered so I wouldn't expect that they will cop much.
They are by a creek but the water would have to come up about 4m to be a problem....buuuut. How does one cope with floods? I imagine if push came to shove I could stack them on pallets and move them with the tractor.
Hopefully it doesn't come to that.
Good to hear all is OK up there.
Cheers
Mark

[eltalia]

When mine host is of quality the drive to the homestead is worth it Mark.
Difficult to comprehend as it is for some is the fact their boundary sits on
National Park as does ours, on the other side. It's just 20kms by bush track
to their fence line and our outyard but NP control the road. When it's closed
it's closed with only the mapped route(GoogleEarth)to the homestead
accessible, and still a 4?4 only road in the Wet once you turn off the
Kennedy highway.
Coming back from Cairns today with me brand-spanker new eyeballs on
(gotta love Medicare..!!!) we spotted the Umbrella trees in full show and a
type of stringybark (sorry Max) that only flowers in the upper branches in
200mm long white tassles, all aglow in full show for the first time since we
have been here (~4yrs). So first thing tomorrow we will be adding bars to
the horizontals and pulling the sugar mats from those client's nucs I
panicked about during the rains.
Ya know, it has been bloody wet mate but glorious for nature and so bees at
the same time.
After rain the Sun always shines - hold hard to that ol' Mate.

Cheers.

Bill

[max2]

I haven't had a chance to check on my bees as yet. Got a caugh and it does slow me down.
The rain trees ( I know it is a weed) is doing well and still giving plenty.
It looks like Blackbutt ( E pilularis) is flowering - not much honey there but generally good pollen to get into winter.
Broad Leaved Ironbark ( E siderophloia) can do well in some areas - not much of it around here.
Gum Topped Box ( E mollucana) can do well but it maybe too dry?

Glad for the weeds...Cobblers Pegs, Blue Top...

Hoping for some good, soaking rain.

[eltalia]

Been watching budding on the first flush of the burnt gravillia/meleluca Max thinking it might
be bloom but no, a new flush. They are holding their own from a quick peek yesterday, so
hopefully the few bloodwoods around along with the umbrella trees is enough. I wouldn't want
to be running a full blown apiary here right now though, I tell ya. The fires really knocked
the forage for six despite the torrents of rain after.
Coughing in empathetic tones Max, in my third week of it, buuut back on the durries yesterday
so well on the way back to 'normal'. ;-)

Cheers.

Bill

[max2]

That will help the cough:)
Given them up  many , many years. I think I gave them away when my kids gave me herbal Tabacco as a present:(
For those of you not familiar with the term " durries" - it generally refers to roll-me-own cigarettes. They say that 20 a day will keep the doctor away!