It's raining! It's raining!

I prefer a dry white with mud crabs, Farmerman. They are very rich white meat, and quite fatty after the wet season run-off. A green salad helps with the digestion. I guess a very cold wheat beer would be okay with them.

Here's a pic of one from the creek.



The crab is the one without the tshirt and cheesy grin.

Muddies (mudcrab) are tropical salt water/tidal species FM.

What many in aust would call a crayfish or simply a cray



Freshwater crayfish:

A large species - Murray cray is the second largest freshwater crayfish in the world. To greater than 150 mm carapace length.

(The largest freshwater crayfish is the giant Tasmanian freshwater crayfish Astacopsis gouldi which grows to at least 400 mm overall and 3.6 kg and has been recorded at over 6 kg.)
http://www.nativefish.asn.au/spiny.html

Yabbie (Freshwater): There several types of yabbie but really they are just small freshwater crayfish. I think its just a regional name, they grow to abiout the length finger tip to heel of palm.


All the above are good eating. Many Aussies regulaily enjoy them. Yabbies are farmed in an adhoc way from farm dams.
The freshwater crays have a size and bag limit applicable. Seasonal catch applicable. fishing licence required.

I'm in Melbourne, Builder.
The dry city. (or one of them.)
The rain is still coming down, steadily, as I type.
I can't tell you how good that sound is.
And it smells totally different outside ... so fresh & clean.
This is good!

Just started in earnest here MsO. its been threatening all afternoon.

Heaps of rain here, dp.
Coming down in bucket-loads.
And about time!
After threatening to, for a few days now.

msolga ,
it's been somewhat dry here lately , but rain will start falling tonight and continue much of the week - total rainfall expected for the week about 60 mm .
there will also some thunderboomers mixed in with it : SPRING IS COMING !
hbg

Spring is coming to hot, dry New Mexico, too. Showers this morning, scattered snow flakes this evening with temperatures in the upper 30s.

Hamburger, how good to see you here again!
Welcome back!

I do hope this will be a good spring for you.
Not to long to go, before the real thing starts.

Is this usual NM early spring weather, roger?
Sounds like winter to me!
Brrrrrr!

holy ****, Im comin right over. Our blue crabs could fit in that guys back pocket.

I love all kinds of crustacea (except barnacles and toredos).

yabbies are what wed call our "mudbugs" or crawdads (these are farmed and caught wild in the bayou areas of Louisiana Mississippi and Fla (as well as the fresh water zones of coastal plain areas from Virginia to South Carolina).

WE boil em up in big bunches and servem hot and then such the meat out of the ehads and tails.

Course our lobsters (your crays) are big delicate tasting crustaceans that can esily top 100 cm(but when they get that big they arent good to eat, too rubbery). We like small lobsters in the 1.5 to 2 lb range That would be about 30 cm with a tail cross section of about 10 cm and BIG crusher claws about 12 cm across and a [icker claw a bit smaller. These can inflict a nasty nip if not careful. I have a lobster sport license in Maine and we often set pots out to catch our limit as sport fishers(Lobstering is a very competitive business in NE ENgland and the commercial guys will cut your lines oif you get too close to their traps).

sorry about butting in but I love all kinds a seafood msolga.

gday

No worries, farmer.
I know how much you love seafood.

G'day to you, too.

msolga ,
the rain will NOT come today but tomorrow - much less than originally forcast - perhaps 10 mm .
still , it's nice to get out into the fresh air .
... wind is howling a bit around the balcony - while the pigeons are beginning to roost under the balconies .
hbg

thunderstorms promised/threatened for this afternoon

I think it will be very refreshing

Crikey and momma mia!

It is raining cats & dogs here!
One month's rain in 24 hours!
Flash flooding all over the place:
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/weather/rain-plays-havoc-with-trains-roads-20110412-1dbe8.html

Well, I wanted rain & I certainly got it.

I'd planned to drive up to Sunbury (outer suburb, fringes of Melbourne) to have lunch with my friend E today. I've just cancelled. The roads just sound too dangerous & it's a long trip, with stretches of the freeway & the roads probably underwater by now.

My cat is not taking this turn of events very well at all. She is following me around the place complaining very insistently. I suspect it might be too wet outside for her morning toilet visit, not sure ... Anyway, she doesn't like it one bit! As If I have any control about these thing!

How are things up north, dadpad?
Hope you're not getting flooded out.

Good farmers rain here. quite heavy overnight but gently falling most of today with the odd heavier shower.
Its mucked up my painting schedule cause i have to actually remove the sashes which of course leaves a great big hole in the wall.

Sorry to hear about your painting plans having been mucked up, dp, but it's a relief to hear that there hasn't been really serious flooding again, like a few months ago ...

An unhappy occurrence, as a result of our our big downpour last night & this morning:
Untreated sewerage in our waterways.
Oh my poor Merri Creek!

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/weather/raw-sewage-released-into-melbournes-waterways-20110412-1dbhp.html

It must be heartbreaking for conservation groups like this one (Friends of the Merri Creek) to see things like that happen.


The Merri Creek at Galada Tamboore (Wurundjeri language for "stream waterhole") in Campbellfield/Thomastown

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~fomc/

Some people can do some pretty silly things sometimes, can't they?
You've gotta wonder, when you read things like this.
Dumb or what? :



http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/floods-force-road-closures-as-heavy-rain-sweeps-melbourne/story-fn7x8me2-1226037558542