Our first creekside downpour...

Things I like about Sydney No. 12: Our first creekside downpour.

I have always loved the rain in Sydney: it is often violent, appearing suddenly and heavily, causing flash floods and torrents of water to gush down the streets. Last night was our first downpour creekside and, as the rain persisted throughout the night, we woke to the sound of a raging torrent outside the bedroom window: our creek now seems to have pretensions to being a river which is rather magnificent.

There were consequences of all this water however which, although I can't say I liked, were most entertaining.

There we were, Daniel and I, sat on the verandah looking out into the night listening to the sounds of the rain thwacking down on the canopy of tree ferns and eucalypts, feeling secure in our little wooden haven with Sniff safely asleep in his basket within. We congratulated ourselves on our new-found home, bade goodnight to the bats and retired inside.

Daniel then lay on the carpet to feed his ever-increasing appetite for The Guardian obituaries which he can now dangerously peruse daily on his iPhone when he felt something crawling up his sleeve. He brushed away idly at the itch only to then see, to his horror, a three-inch leech fall to the carpet by his face. It and Daniel thrashed wildly about, the leech sadly thwarted in its mission to sucker itself into the folds of Daniel's juicy inner elbow. I, alerted by the sounds of the screams, ran through into the living room and then myself yelped in disgust as we watched how the leech raised itself vertically up into the air, extending its fabulously vile shiny body, waving about like an extending periscope looking for humans (ie. us) to latch onto and suck dry.

Daniel bravely scooped it up and perched it on the banister outside. At a safe distance we then watched its evil progress for a while, its constant undulating search for blood. Once back inside the house, our wooden haven didn't feel quite so secure any more and Daniel soon confused the scratching on his back caused by the tag in his underpants for another leech and sought to rip his clothes off in a frenzy of panic...

Ho hum.

Here's a few photos of our house and the verdant and dripping view down to the creek after last night's deluge including the balcony whereon the leech no doubt still lurks...the raging torrent that is Berry's Creek is hidden below the path in the last picture...