Presenting my Antipodean 'stepmother'...

There are many places throughout the world that I would classify as 'favourites'.

Equally, there are many places that, given the right circumstances, I would like to live in; but I have to say that the place I want to live in most of all is Victoria, in Australia.

Victoria is my adopted mother country.  My 'stepmother country'.  

For a long, long time, after my family moved there from England, I disliked this Antipodean stepmother of mine.  

I resented everything about her.

I averted my eyes.  

I grew sullen when she was mentioned.  

I longed to 'escape' her presence.

I ran away at least three times in our first few years there.

I constantly tempted my poor parents to return 'home'.

But as the years passed and I did indeed escape - on many occasions and for long periods of time - I found that in fact, I missed her.  Was it a case of absence makes the heart grow fonder?  Maybe.  Maybe it was she had crept in to my heart.

These days I feel as much at home in Victoria as I do in England; in parts of France; here in Kaiserswerth,  and other such places.

I was once told that people who moved countries in their childhood, become restless.  They feel that they do not belong anywhere.  There is no place that they could say is their 'home'.

I think that I am living proof of this.

When asked what my nationality is I can say that I am a U.K. citizen.  Thanks to dual nationality I am also an Australian citizen.  But when it comes down to it I do not feel as if I 'belong' to any nation.  So I guess I should say that I am a world citizen.

Having said that though, I do like Victoria.  A lot.  Especially the countryside and the rural towns and villages.  In my travels I see many places that remind me of the Victorian landscape: Provence in particular. 

Maybe that is why I like Victoria so much: Because she reminds me of other places...

Of course, Victoria is no Saint.  She has her 'moments':  The extreme heat of February and early March. The periods of drought.  The bushfires.  Corrugated Iron.  Those horrible poisonous snakes and spiders(!) The suburban sprawl...  

But I am 'okay' with that.  I don't mind.  When you love someone you love them with their imperfections as well as with their beauty.

So I decided that I would post some photographs of Victoria for you to see for yourself.  I hope you enjoy them!

This is Melbourne from the Railway Station at Camberwell.  You can see the city skyline in the distance:

The city of Melbourne is like any other really: a mix of old and new.  The new dwarfing the old:

Inner Melbourne is littered with remnants of her Victorian era splendour:

A recognised 'culinary capital', one can eat dishes from almost any part of the world, while in Melbourne.  Here is a selection of Polish food from the restaurant 'Borscht, Vodka, and Tears':

But once you leave Melbourne and its suburbs behind you enter another realm:
Country Victoria is full of little towns and villages:
This is the town of Beechworth on a Winter's afternoon:


. . . and here is her Italianate Post Office:


Here is Clunes Town Hall:

The Public Library at Alexandra:

And the town hall at Heathcote:

This is the façade of the long gone old Beechworth Hospital:

There are old houses:

 

Old churches:

Not-so-old Churches:

And then there is the country itself.  The spaces in-between all the towns, villages and hamlets:

I have decided that I don't mind her coastal regions as much as I used to:

I don't find her native trees to be as 'boring' as I did in my teens:

... and I have grown to like the native flowers:
This is the Australian Sarsaparilla plant:

This is a form of Corea:

Here is a red-flowering gum:

. . . and the wildlife such as these Crimson Rosellas:

Kangaroos:

Echidnas:


There are many more pleasures awaiting those who visit or live in this relatively small state.  In future posts I will try to show some of them, but for the time being I hope you enjoyed this small plate of Victorian hors-d'oeuvres...

Hochwasser

It has been a worry time for many parts of Germany during this past couple of weeks.  The news reports here and around the world have been full of the flooding in central Europe.  Some people have lost their lives and the cost to rectify the damage is expected to be in the billions of euros.

This image bring home just what it is like when rivers overflow their banks and make everyone's life a misery:

 http://meissenerregionwirbt.de/wp-content/uploads/Anker.jpg

Here is an aerial view of Dresden.  The old town is in the upper part of the photo.  There should be a quay running alongside the river but this is all under water.  The boats are anchored where the edge would normally be.  if it get smuch higher it will flood the city:

http://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/gallery.hochwasser-aktuell-dresden-halle-deggendorf-jahrhundert-flut-so-schlimm-ist-die-lage-param~140~139~0~149~false.f29ba1fe-f2f1-457a-adee-162c8cb13de0.html

They say that it some areas the flooding is as high as it has been in the last 500 years.  Meissen, Halle, Magdeburg, Dresden: many town are feeling the effects of these floodwaters.  This photograph shows a motor way down near Munich:

 http://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/gallery.hochwasser-aktuell-dresden-halle-deggendorf-jahrhundert-flut-so-schlimm-ist-die-lage-param~100~99~0~149~false.f29ba1fe-f2f1-457a-adee-162c8cb13de0.html

There has been flooding in other countries too: Hungary and the Czech Republic.  Here is a more dramatic photograph of what flooding can do:

 http://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/gallery.hochwasser-aktuell-dresden-halle-deggendorf-jahrhundert-flut-so-schlimm-ist-die-lage-param~65~64~0~149~false.f29ba1fe-f2f1-457a-adee-162c8cb13de0.html

All that water eventually disperses, following natural water courses until it reaches the sea.  The main rivers in this area are the Elbe and the Danube.  For Kaiserswerth this is good news because of course we are on the Rhine.

However. . .

Melting snow in the Alps (where the Rhine is born); heavy rains in southern Germany (through which the Rhine runs), and some run off from the flooded areas, has meant that the Rhine too has risen.  This is view outside the old village walls, which you can just see on the right of this photo.  The trees grown on a little beach area by the river :



The Flood water (hochwasser) signs are out to prevent us taking the river path to nearby Wittlaer. . .


. . . And everyone wanders down to the river to see if it is getting 'too' high for our liking.  There is talk that the town flood barriers were to be prepared!


We often gauge the river's height by the angle of the gangway down to the pontoon for the Dusseldorf ferry.  It should run at roughly a 30 to 35 degree angle.  As you can see, that is not the case at the moment:


You should be able to walk to the marker, and on the far side of the river you can see that the ferry is staying where it is.  The river is too fast for it to make the journey to our side.


Mind you, it isn't as bad as it could be.  In 1926 the river rose 11 metres and Kaiserswerth was completely flooded.  The only way to move around was by boat:

This is the highest official recorded level of flooding in Kaiserswerth and you find markers all over the place showing how high the water reached once it entered the village; but in 1795 we are told it rose to 11.5 metres.
In 1993 and 1995 the river rose to at least 10 metres.
Thankfully in our time here I have not witnessed flooding to that extent, but we do get a rise in the water table when the Rhine is high.  This week we have had the old river bed near our apartment suddenly begin to fill with water:

The ducks love it of course and we have seen duckling floating about in the fields.  But it is not good for the horses and I read that coming at this time, the flooding has been particularly bad for the wild animals, with many nesting birds losing their eggs and young, and many baby animals drowning.
Here is another view of our rising water level.  This is the pathway that wends it way around the bushes  in the part of the old river bed below our apartment:

The fields are sodden and the grass (which the farm horses and cows would normally be frolicking in) is ruined:

Thankfully we are protected by our tree lined dykes.  The main dyke runs from Kaiserswerth, all the way into Dusseldorf; providing a stout barricade as well as a nice car-free path for walkers, joggers, and bike riders.  A smaller series of dykes protects our village.  Trees were planted on top to stabilize it.  Our own bijou apartment building sits atop the dyke too!

We feel that we are quite safe from any potential water threat.

Today when I checked the river I felt certain that it is receding...