Today, at last, there’s rain. We’ve had no more than an inch since July, here, in Maleny. The creek stopped running and what was left of the grass was crisp to walk on. Now, with the rain, it’s dark brown, as if burned. It’s only been an inch and a half, but the spangled drongos chatter damply in the trees and behind everything is the sound of flowing water. A sense of hope returns.

While looking up the meaning of the word obloquy in the Shorter Oxford (I’m sure everybody knows it, but for those, like me, who’d forgotten it’s: abuse, calumny, slander) I chanced to come upon the word Obambulation, which is described as ‘the action, or an act, of walking about or wandering here and there.’ How much one wishes the President of the United States has a stronger sense of direction….