Lock up your waters!!

"Water-sensitive urban design: Design of subdivisions, buildings and landscape which enhances the opportunities for at-source conservation of water, rainfall detention and use, infiltration, and interception of pollutants in surface runoff from the block."

The NSW Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources has provided us with a really comprehensive water glossary as a support to our conversations with regard to our ongoing water management crisis. Everything's a crisis at the moment. I keep reading about water detention where I would say water retention, so I came to this site to consult. Even they take the locking up of waters for granted. The concept of water illegally entering our country is rather ironic considering we have so little of it and therefore we'd have to put it in a detention centre to see if it has the right to stay here or not. Detained waters. It's hilarious. It is a concept we need to have as such. Detention tanks are there to hold water which has not been treated for consumption and hasn't been treated to be perfectly safe, so it has to be detained until it passes muster. I think that is what water detention is as far as I can see. Funny use of vocabulary, though.

A-Z of Water - Water Facts - Waterworks.net.au

Weird Weather

It's overcast and weird. The weekend was weird because we had a storm but not much rain. Then last night it got cold. It's all over the place and we can see the dryness of the garden but it seems like it might rain so you don't know if you should water or not. Then it get warms, then it gets freezing. There is no real spring pattern and I guess one day it will be hot and just stay that way for a while. I think that is bothering us. After that weekend a couple of weeks back where we had a stinking hot Saturday with a north wind and plenty of dust, we have realised we are back to that again and we are trying to find the courage to face another long, hot, dry summer. It is getting us down whereas we would normally be looking forward to summer. We would normally feel confident and able to deal with it. It's why we live in Australia. this year though we are really down about it and the couldn't be bothered attitude hasn't gone. We are not difficult and we are pretty friendly. There is just this undercurrent . We want Australia back where we can just laugh and play in the sun, no worries. I was talking to an African guy today and he was saying there is no such thing as climate change in Africa. It's the same weather they have always had and they don't even talk about climate change. Weird.

Water Restrictions

Our water restrictions have been altered so we can share the watering time over two days. What a relief. We were all jumping for joy at work when we found out. So why didn't we know? The news had escaped us and when of the guys told us the good news...we realised how much easier this would be. One day a week is neither enough nor manageable. Two days is helpful and workable. 3 days of one hour max would be even better.  So if you missed the restriction updates:

• Even numbered houses        Tuesday and Saturday        6-9am or 6-9pm
• Odd numbered houses         Wednesday and Sunday     6-9am or 6-9pm

SA Water

Water Worries

Well, we are depressed. This weekend is is beautiful and we should be out in our gardens like we normally are. No. We are not. The last two weekends were hot and dry and we have had no rain. So we are fed up already. We spent months watching our gardens go dry last summer. We watched trees die and animals suffer. We breathed in lungs full of dust which made us so sick this winter. Then we spent all of autumn repairing the damage and were overjoyed to see our gardens come back to life and look so good. So we organised all the drought proofing and in two weekdns it is shot to pieces and the land is dry and things have browned off. We have restrictions and we have rain water tanks but Adelaide is despondant. We don't care. Our gardens are full of weeds and grass gone to see and we are not getting outour lawnmowers, we are not breaking our backs weeding and so Adelaide, which is normally a very pretty , tidy, well kept place is going to look like no one cares. We don't. We want water. We are not water wasters. We wnat enough water to make it worthwhle to garden and make things pretty. We can't keep carting buckets around when it  is hot and we are working. It is a 19th century approach and we live in 2008. We want to be able to have enough water so we can continue to work. The dry grass will be a fire hazard as will be the unraked leaves . When Adelaide gets like this there is no knowing which way we shall turn...but the worm will turn.

S'bloodyhotndry.

We are so not happy. Adelaide turned out a vile day today weatherwise and I could see it on the horizon as I drove into town. The heat does not worry me, but as I drove to town I could see this pall of nasty grey mist blowing over us. Vile. Vile. Vile. Everything was already brown and you could see the trees drying up already. So much for the rain in winter. There is nothing in our soil...and still they are excavating and building houses. No rain. No water. Brown. In 5 minutes Adelaide has turned from green and healthy looking to brown and disgusting. The only htings which didn't mind were the roses. What a magnificent show of roses we had all the way to town. Hutt Steet was hot , dry and incredibly dusty. You couldn't breathe. Too warm, too dry , too windy and too dusty. We had fun inspite of the weather and drank plenty of water to keep hydrated. So when it was my turn to water the garden tonight I could see the damage already done. Our soil is as dry as a bone. We need water. Water to keep the dust down and water to keep things alive.