After a long, but rather pleasant flight from Seattle via Los Angeles, I was met at Sydney Airport by my brother Peter and his two grandsons, Jake and Flynn Crofts.
We headed home, in glorious sunshine I might add, to Jake and Flynn's home, where the next baby sitter - their father's mother - was due in. After Lorraine arrived, we headed to collect Yvonne (my sister-in-law) to look at a home that was available for rent. The home belonged to the daughter of a good friend of Yvonne, and had been graciously held in case I was interested. A case of mutual interest!
So within a couple of hours of landing I had a place to call home for the immediate longer term. Short term was to stay with Peter and Yvonne while I got myself organised. A week later (at the time of writing) and I am much more organised, but there's still quite a bit to do to establish myself again.
Peter and Yvonne were headed to a wedding in the afternoon and evening, so I had the day to myself, other than taking my nieces and families to dinner. We did have a very enjoyable meal at a local Thai restaurant.
During the afternoon, a quite severe thunderstorm rolled through. I haven't seen one of these at all in Seattle, and they are a source of fascination to our family. This was quite a nice re-introduction to Sydney.
Rain splashing off the wall dividing my brother's home from their neighbours. It was raining very heavily at this time.
Capturing the "exploding" pieces of a decent size drop.
It's more visible in the larger version, or
Then as the storm cell passed by, a rainbow appeared. Perhaps I really was back in the land of Oz!
Then a double rainbow!
A wider angle view, showing also the water on the patio, the aftermath of the rain.
2005