I slept through the explosion. Lachlan heard it as my tool shed sailed past his bedroom window. Jenny heard enough to shake me awake. The wind was howling and the rain was drumming down, but first light revealed the dawn’s drama. The shed took out the corner post of the pergola which mercifully prevented it blowing down the street. Our front fence – brick pillars and lattice work had collapsed down into the street below. Next door’s boat and trailer were upside down on our verge and we both had gaping holes in our roofs.

Our day’s plans changed slightly as the State Emergency Services and ourselves filled sandbags and replaced tiles. Visitors were aplenty. Lachlan was in his element doing TV interviews with Seven, Nine, Ten and the WA Performing Arts (?!?). There were church folk, insurance assessors, stunned neighbours and a bloke who said he was a severe weather consultant from the Bureau of Meteorology.

I just wanted to get what was left of the contents of my shed sorted out. It strikes me that the thing that disturbed me most of all was the violation of my shed! It was just a poky little thing filled with tools, left over bits and pieces and an array of unfinished projects. Rummaging through the debris I found my bush saw that I thought I had lost three years ago and some contraptions that I had no idea or recollection of what they were for. It was a mini odyssey during a morning of chaos. I’m sure that given some time to reflect I will find some sort of a parable or deep and meaningful reflection in all this.

But right now I’m saying to myself, “Surely this ill wind could have found somewhere else to leash its five second fury!”