WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS!

Well, golly me! Two days ago we had really lovely hot 32 celsius (near 80F) then around 6.30pm the thunder rolled in, then the lightning and then..BAM!!!! All hell broke loose with 35mm (1 and half inches) of rain in less than 14 minutes! I live on a very steep hill and the gravel brought down the pathway backed up, and created a levee, and then a diversion for the water to come to my front door! So, it was battle stations to hurriedly sweep and shovel away the water whilst dodging the lightning strikes.

 The next day we saw the damage. The poor old pathway now devoid of helpful gravel; Gone. The long driveway which we had just put two truck loads of gravel on last week; Gone. Gouged out creeks are now part of my landscape. Today the rains still continued albeit lightly, but the damaged sections are allowing the new channels of water run off to continue scouring the ground. This is not good. 

 Whilst I could look at it as being a terrible event and cry and carry on about the work now involved with redoing the path and drive, I can only marvel at how Mother Nature is intent on doing what she does best. As my 18 year old son said as we hoisted loads of gravel away in frenzied madness all the while getting drenched to the skin; "Wow, you can see how rivers get created!" Yes, indeed, Mother Nature doesn't care if we are in her way or not. That is why I respect her and love her dearly.
Cheerio for now whilst I dry off and pour a glass of wine. Tonight the heater is back on and coziness abounds!
Here are some photos of the damage.

There is a drain under those concrete blocks but it couldn't cope with the deluge coming from the top of the pathway. I am standing right near the front door. This is after we got rid of most of the gravel from the night before.

Side pathway with all the gravel from the top of the property. Things fell over or got washed down the hill. Sigh.......

The exposed 1950's fill on the driveway which had lots of broken glass and broken crockery in it. Lost all the topsoil and gravel.

My poor old dog Tess halfway down our driveway. Photo looking at the rear of the house. We started painting it in a nice blue grey. The house not the drive! LOL!