I keep trying to remind myself - it is January and hot days are to be expected. I am now counting down until Autumn! Not just for cooler weather, but also because it's so good for doing things in the garden!
A pleasant morning, even though the coffee plans were changed due to a very windy day. I am hoping my friend's runny nose was caused by allergy to my cats and not to anything else. I opened all the windows and ran our hepa filters just in case.
Other than the dratted wind, it has been a beautiful day with bright sunshine. I am looking forward to the weekend and pottering around in the house and garden.
I'm happy at about 56° north - obviously 59°N would be ideal (Orkney ), but 56°N will do nicely. It's currently (at 7:30 in the evening) 7°C, with daily highs around the 10°C mark, which for January is very comfortable indeed.
Sorry - I suspect the thought of those temperatures is sending you scurrying to find your thermals ...
I'm happy at about 56° north - obviously 59°N would be ideal (Orkney ), but 56°N will do nicely. It's currently (at 7:30 in the evening) 7°C, with daily highs around the 10°C mark, which for January is very comfortable indeed.
Sorry - I suspect the thought of those temperatures is sending you scurrying to find your thermals ...
Hello from Kangaroo Island! After a few days with friends in the Snowy Mountains (I had 2 blisters to show for my exertions, after the 22 or so km loop bushwalk from Charlotte Pass to Mt Kosciusko (our tallest mountain, overseas readers: 2,228m), and some unexpected payments giving me more funds, I thought I'd head SW and see where I end up. Been here, camping, own tent, since Tuesday; leave for home tomorrow. The life of a student!
My parents (just north of Newcastle) had the power out for 2 days after the storms. My brother-in-law brought a generator over!
Sounds like you are having a wonderful time @Climacu, glad it's going well. I hope your parents' power is soon restored and normal life will resume ok.
I haven't heard anything from my sister, so I'm assuming she's ok. She has a generator if she needs it, and if she had needed cleanup help I'm sure I would have heard something.
A really beautiful day here today, lovely blue sky and Cheery husband got a bit of garden work done. I just sat inside and enjoyed looking at the garden, but have been around and watered all the pot-plants in anticipation of warm weather over the next few days.
Power back on for the parents. My sister and family, who live a few minutes away, had theirs restored earlier. Luck of the draw!
Lovely to sit and enjoy a garden, Cheery Gardener! Before I left I attacked, correct word, my parents' back and front gardens, pruning the poor things to an inch within their life! They were quite overgrown. A sense of satisfaction.
The local library was giving away various seeds. The sunflowers I gave mum are apparently growing at a rapid rate!
Stay cool in the warm weather! The next few days look a bit cooler around here.
That sounds like a job well done @Climacus and I am sure your parents were appreciative. If things are overlooked (it seems) even briefly, the whole place has turned into a jungle. Husband reckons he has reclaimed a strip of about 2 metres wide with his efforts.
Sunflowers are wonderful, attractive to birds and so cheering!
When we were in Fredericton, a hedge of sunflowers appeared spontaneously below the deck outside our house. We had a bird-feeder attached to the railing of the deck, and below it was just grass.
The birdies obviously didn't like the sunflowers that formed part of the birdie-food we gave them, and either ignored them or spat them out on to the grass, and all of a sudden (I'm assuming after we'd had some ideal sunflower-production weather) we had this huge hedge (about 6 feet high) with well over 50 sunflowers in it!
That sounds totally magnificent @Piglet, sunflowers certainly make an excellent display!
I have some new flowers out in the garden, that have never flowered in the 6 years we've lived here. They are very pretty and I went outside to try to take a photo of the orange butterfly which looked beautiful against the purple flowers, but the butterfly was very flitty and I lost my photo opportunity! Maybe tomorrow ...
I do not see many butterflies these days. I saw quite a few of those orange ones by the coast the other day.
At St Mary of the Cross MacKillop's museum. Fascinating. Her and Fr Julian truly had a heart for the poor and education. Though not a Catholic, I feel close to them (as I consider a career in education) and am inspired.
My now brother in law got me (when I was younger and silly) with the drop bear concept. He sold it to me with such a straight face, now I can't believe I was so naive, but that's getting older for you!!
Have awoken to a cool and overcast morning, very pleasant. It's not sending me hare-ing out to the garden though, I have declared it a slow day, so just a bit of home pottering and being lazy.
I'm meeting a friend for lunch tomorrow and I'm hoping for another one like today!
Drop bears are very real. Having lots of trees in our area means that we always wear hats when out walking; the hats seem to confuse the bears, and it's been a while since one attacked us.
Wot @Gee D sez. Don't lower your guard. And in case anyone from the BoM is a Shipmate, why are you sending me hourly scareograms about a dangerous heatwave? Don't you think that I know it's effing hot?
Well, mate, yet another reason to come up here and see these flittering around our yard 🦋🦋
Glorious!
I may have an opportunity to spend term 1 and the remainder of my placement in coastal, regional South Australia. Need to confirm with TAFE that I can complete my placement out-of-state. Very much considering it!
Hi everyone - I've just had weird things happen with my connection but it seems to have righted itself for now.
Brilliant news on the rose rescuing front. The yellow one that split in half after it was pruned accidently by a motor mower has sported a beautiful yellow flower, while the Perle D'Or now as new leaves sprouting out of what looks like dead wood. Theoretically I did know that roses were tough, but I never realise how tough they are. Liberal quantities of water have been applied and I think that the unseasonably low temperatures have helped too in that even on the days I didn't water - due to rain being forecast but not happening - the ground didn't actually dry out.
I see the poms are panicking about a puff of wind. It would be insensitive to post on their thread, I mean, of course it's worrying when the kids' trampoline teleports itself into your neighbour's yard, or across the road, but I'll see your breeze and raise you a North Queensland cyclone. Which, btw, might be on the way. The last one, last year, Cat 4 at the time, veered north just as it was about to stomp our place, and promptly decided to downgrade itself as it moved inland. Not before turning off the lights for a couple of weeks for several km around - but not us! Are we holy? Or are we on the same Ergon circuit as the RAAF?
Whatever, @Clarence preps for WWIII, so we're ready.
Re: Firenze's picture - silly bugger taking an umbrella out in a hoolie!
The trees outside my window are dancing about a bit, and I'm quite glad I was told not to go to work. The High Street seems mostly deserted, but I just heard a siren - don't know if it was fire or ambulance.
FD, would you mind not posting links to Murdoch's vile rag? Some of us have to open them ...
Re: Firenze's picture - silly bugger taking an umbrella out in a hoolie!
:
They’ve rearranged the photos since I made the link. The one that’s near me is the tree fallen through the stone wall. This is an area with a lot of big Victorian villas with mature timber to match.
Good to see you here @Huia, I was starting to get worried about you. I'm very glad to hear how well your roses are doing, they were certainly a wonderful rediscovery!
@Climacus good to hear about your time in SA, sounds like it's going really well.
I'm glad to hear @Clarence has all the wild weather preparations sorted @Foaming Draught , that is certainly a boon and I'm feeling for those in the Northern Hemisphere experiencing their own share of wild weather.
Things are a bit sticky here this afternoon, but yesterday's lunch with a friend was very yummy and good company. This time we scored an outdoor table at her favourite cafe and it was very pleasant under the umbrella. My bad was dripping dressing from my wrap all over my brand new trousers on their first wear. However, as soon as I got home, I lathered them in laundry liquid and left them overnight. Today they appear to have sustained no lasting damage, which is a relief. My GP told me last week that I'd lost 2kg and I was so thrilled to fit in to the pants with comfort, and cross with myself for being a grot!
I was shocked too to see my favourite gift shop had closed down at the same venue, I had not been there since before Christmas and was happy for the proprietors that they have retired, but sad for me as it was such a lovely shop. I guess it's better to shut up shop from choice, rather than from need and that if that shop had been there since she was a little girl, that they had had a very good run there, but still ....
Well done on the weight loss! And rescuing the pants!
Sorry to hear you have lost a beloved shop.
At Goulburn tonight and tomorrow. Went to the Antiochian monastery (serves as a parish as well for the city) for Vespers; nice to hear Byzantine chant again (nothing against Slavonic chant...just I had 9 years with the Antiochians!) A group from a parish is on retreat and one of the visiting chanters remembered me which was humbling. Had a brief chat with Father afterwards too which was nice. He had a catechumen class to get to... several enquirers.
I really need to improve my balance and flexibility (physiological, I mean, not bank, politics, or theology.) So I did some exercises this morning. As in, I dropped the soap in the shower.
Glad to hear that your travels are progressing well, @Climacus. Give us a bit more notice when you’re passing that close and we might feel like a day trip for a mini shipmeet. @Cheery Gardener I forgot to reply to your query about our garden and the storm. It survived OK although Mr WitG had to do some tidying up on the rose which is tied over an arch. Good to hear that your trousers were OK. I sometimes salad dressing and gravy have a new clothes detector.
We were in Sydney last weekend and it was certainly seriously windy there. Very glad there were no bushfires nearby. We went to one of the last performances of the current run of Jesus Christ Superstar and enjoyed it. We had both been to the original Australian run in the early seventies, and wondered how it would compare. The performance and staging were much more professional. Judas, in particular, came over with much more complexity, rather than just being menacing.
As the weather was so strange, we went to see Conclave instead of going for a ferry ride. Ralph Fiennes is seriously good.
Then went to see my mother-in-law on Monday. She’s much the same as last time.
Good to see you back after some holiday time @WormInTheGrass. The friend I had lunch with on Friday had also been to see JCS a week or so ago and I completely forgot to ask her whether they had enjoyed it!! Glad to hear your garden was OK.
@Climacus I remember my Mother in law telling me that when the community building was a novitiate (probably back in the 60's) they offered rooms to the neighouring Anglican church to use, as the Sunday school had run out of space. They eventually built a new hall to house the younger children, but it was a lovely experience of caring for one another and being good neighours.
Very slow and lazy day today. I had a really terrible sleep and am hoping for better tonight!
Glad to hear that your travels are progressing well, @Climacus. Give us a bit more notice when you’re passing that close and we might feel like a day trip for a mini shipmeet.
Will do; thank you. That would be lovely. It was a close-to-last-minute decision. I know I mentioned SA, but in church yesterday, and after a lunch discussion with someone, I'm pondering doing my placement this term in Goulburn now (my mind constantly changes...) It all just felt "nice".
Great to hear you enjoyed Jesus Christ Superstar, interesting to compare a prior performance, and the other activities. Thoughts and prayers for your mother-in-law.
@Climacus I remember my Mother in law telling me that when the community building was a novitiate (probably back in the 60's) they offered rooms to the neighouring Anglican church to use, as the Sunday school had run out of space. They eventually built a new hall to house the younger children, but it was a lovely experience of caring for one another and being good neighours.
I had the best sleep ever last night after a terrible one the previous night, thank goodness!
However, I am now totally melting and sticking to only inside jobs. Cheery husband is toughing it out in the garden as his improvements involve the watering system and that needs to be finished as everything is on a timer.
I echo WITG's suggestion of a mini meet, maybe next time!!
It's that time of year. The monsoon has def started to come down from Indonesia, later than usual. Been tipping down today in the 'Ville. No sign of cyclone activity at the moment, but pointers are that the low will form into a tropical low by the end of the week.
We're expecting fewer (4) cyclones than some previous seasons, but they'll be stronger. Of course, they can be offshore, or smack some other poor dears north or south of us. Kirrily let us off lightly this time last year.
@Foaming Draught I can't imagine living with the idea of cyclones hanging over my head. I would find that too stressful, but I guess if people live with it all the time, they get used to it and make sure they are as prepared as they can be? You mentioned that @Clarence has all that under control!
Today is very much a do nothing day. It's hotter than I can cope with, so I am not doing any jobs, other than running the dishwasher. Good thing there are plenty of good things to listen to online, or TV to watch. Fluffy cat is hiding in the wardrobe where it's cool, short haired cat has been lying on the bed with me, catching the breeze off the aircon. Temperatures to drop tomorrow and even if it's only a couple of days, I will take it!!
The southerly has hit Sinny and is cooling rapidly after 37 on the coast and 40 at Penrith. Rain on the way; hope it can hold off till the bus drops me home…
The main storm has now passed over us, and the temp has dropped to the mid-20's. With luck, there'll be a second round to bring it down to a temp good for sleeping.
The main storm has now passed over us, and the temp has dropped to the mid-20's. With luck, there'll be a second round to bring it down to a temp good for sleeping.
Temp has dropped from 42.2 to a pleasant 22, will be good for sleeping. Lots of lightening, thunder and rain.
@Climacus I have very fond memories of that walk at the top of Australia from when we used to go to Thredbo every second year for Christmas or New Year.
Spent the long weekend in the Blue Mountains with friends, managed 2 walks and much conversation - some of which was rather weighty. The previous weekend we caught the last performance of the Leura Shakespeare Festival (Much Ado about Nothing) in the open air at Everglades Gardens. Rather fun!
As for yesterday, that was proper hot. Lawn mowing was delayed until today, which was after I got pummeled by the physio. Quiet arvo planned, although there’s still lots of bits and pieces to pick up in the garden post various storms.
And the blooming Bruce is cut again north of Cardwell!
"Oh dear, we've had a lot of rain, we weren't expecting that". It only happens every Northern Wet season you imbeciles of both parties.
It is a disgrace. The effing Brisbane and Canberra pollies think that Queensland highways end at Gympie and Ipswich.
No point in putting this in Hell, nobody outside of Qld would know what I'm enraged about.
And the blooming Bruce is cut again north of Cardwell!
"Oh dear, we've had a lot of rain, we weren't expecting that". It only happens every Northern Wet season you imbeciles of both parties.
It is a disgrace. The effing Brisbane and Canberra pollies think that Queensland highways end at Gympie and Ipswich.
No point in putting this in Hell, nobody outside of Qld would know what I'm enraged about.
Isis highway? My knowledge of far-flung roads is lacking... The modern connotation of the name sent me searching for its history which was interesting (a river there...a river in England...) I do recall the Egyptian deity now.
Just below 40 yesterday; 25 today. A glorious storm which cooled things down. Celebrated my eldest niece's 20th at an Indian/Pizza place (yes) at Morpeth.
Ploughing through the mandatory training before the school year...
Spent the long weekend in the Blue Mountains with friends, managed 2 walks and much conversation - some of which was rather weighty. The previous weekend we caught the last performance of the Leura Shakespeare Festival (Much Ado about Nothing) in the open air at Everglades Gardens. Rather fun!
Sounds wonderful. Albury and Palmerston North (NZ) had (hopefully still have...) Shakespeare in the Botanic Gardens which was enjoyable. Some beautiful walks in the Mountains... I only discovered Blackheath's Grand Canyon walk last year, despite decades of visits.
Comments
A pleasant morning, even though the coffee plans were changed due to a very windy day. I am hoping my friend's runny nose was caused by allergy to my cats and not to anything else. I opened all the windows and ran our hepa filters just in case.
Other than the dratted wind, it has been a beautiful day with bright sunshine. I am looking forward to the weekend and pottering around in the house and garden.
I'm already wearing them!
(and yes, beyond 45 S)
I'm already wearing them!
(and yes, beyond 45 S)
My parents (just north of Newcastle) had the power out for 2 days after the storms. My brother-in-law brought a generator over!
I haven't heard anything from my sister, so I'm assuming she's ok. She has a generator if she needs it, and if she had needed cleanup help I'm sure I would have heard something.
A really beautiful day here today, lovely blue sky and Cheery husband got a bit of garden work done. I just sat inside and enjoyed looking at the garden, but have been around and watered all the pot-plants in anticipation of warm weather over the next few days.
Lovely to sit and enjoy a garden, Cheery Gardener! Before I left I attacked, correct word, my parents' back and front gardens, pruning the poor things to an inch within their life! They were quite overgrown. A sense of satisfaction.
The local library was giving away various seeds. The sunflowers I gave mum are apparently growing at a rapid rate!
Stay cool in the warm weather! The next few days look a bit cooler around here.
Sunflowers are wonderful, attractive to birds and so cheering!
The birdies obviously didn't like the sunflowers that formed part of the birdie-food we gave them, and either ignored them or spat them out on to the grass, and all of a sudden (I'm assuming after we'd had some ideal sunflower-production weather) we had this huge hedge (about 6 feet high) with well over 50 sunflowers in it!
I have some new flowers out in the garden, that have never flowered in the 6 years we've lived here. They are very pretty and I went outside to try to take a photo of the orange butterfly which looked beautiful against the purple flowers, but the butterfly was very flitty and I lost my photo opportunity! Maybe tomorrow ...
At St Mary of the Cross MacKillop's museum. Fascinating. Her and Fr Julian truly had a heart for the poor and education. Though not a Catholic, I feel close to them (as I consider a career in education) and am inspired.
Have awoken to a cool and overcast morning, very pleasant. It's not sending me hare-ing out to the garden though, I have declared it a slow day, so just a bit of home pottering and being lazy.
I'm meeting a friend for lunch tomorrow and I'm hoping for another one like today!
Drop bears are very real. Having lots of trees in our area means that we always wear hats when out walking; the hats seem to confuse the bears, and it's been a while since one attacked us.
Glorious!
I may have an opportunity to spend term 1 and the remainder of my placement in coastal, regional South Australia. Need to confirm with TAFE that I can complete my placement out-of-state. Very much considering it!
Brilliant news on the rose rescuing front. The yellow one that split in half after it was pruned accidently by a motor mower has sported a beautiful yellow flower, while the Perle D'Or now as new leaves sprouting out of what looks like dead wood. Theoretically I did know that roses were tough, but I never realise how tough they are. Liberal quantities of water have been applied and I think that the unseasonably low temperatures have helped too in that even on the days I didn't water - due to rain being forecast but not happening - the ground didn't actually dry out.
Whatever, @Clarence preps for WWIII, so we're ready.
Re: Firenze's picture - silly bugger taking an umbrella out in a hoolie!
The trees outside my window are dancing about a bit, and I'm quite glad I was told not to go to work. The High Street seems mostly deserted, but I just heard a siren - don't know if it was fire or ambulance.
FD, would you mind not posting links to Murdoch's vile rag? Some of us have to open them ...
They’ve rearranged the photos since I made the link. The one that’s near me is the tree fallen through the stone wall. This is an area with a lot of big Victorian villas with mature timber to match.
near you.
Best wishes for continued good connections!
Thoughts for all in inclement and dangerous weather.
@Climacus good to hear about your time in SA, sounds like it's going really well.
I'm glad to hear @Clarence has all the wild weather preparations sorted @Foaming Draught , that is certainly a boon and I'm feeling for those in the Northern Hemisphere experiencing their own share of wild weather.
Things are a bit sticky here this afternoon, but yesterday's lunch with a friend was very yummy and good company. This time we scored an outdoor table at her favourite cafe and it was very pleasant under the umbrella. My bad was dripping dressing from my wrap all over my brand new trousers on their first wear. However, as soon as I got home, I lathered them in laundry liquid and left them overnight. Today they appear to have sustained no lasting damage, which is a relief. My GP told me last week that I'd lost 2kg and I was so thrilled to fit in to the pants with comfort, and cross with myself for being a grot!
I was shocked too to see my favourite gift shop had closed down at the same venue, I had not been there since before Christmas and was happy for the proprietors that they have retired, but sad for me as it was such a lovely shop. I guess it's better to shut up shop from choice, rather than from need and that if that shop had been there since she was a little girl, that they had had a very good run there, but still ....
Sorry to hear you have lost a beloved shop.
At Goulburn tonight and tomorrow. Went to the Antiochian monastery (serves as a parish as well for the city) for Vespers; nice to hear Byzantine chant again (nothing against Slavonic chant...just I had 9 years with the Antiochians!) A group from a parish is on retreat and one of the visiting chanters remembered me which was humbling. Had a brief chat with Father afterwards too which was nice. He had a catechumen class to get to... several enquirers.
We were in Sydney last weekend and it was certainly seriously windy there. Very glad there were no bushfires nearby. We went to one of the last performances of the current run of Jesus Christ Superstar and enjoyed it. We had both been to the original Australian run in the early seventies, and wondered how it would compare. The performance and staging were much more professional. Judas, in particular, came over with much more complexity, rather than just being menacing.
As the weather was so strange, we went to see Conclave instead of going for a ferry ride. Ralph Fiennes is seriously good.
Then went to see my mother-in-law on Monday. She’s much the same as last time.
@Climacus I remember my Mother in law telling me that when the community building was a novitiate (probably back in the 60's) they offered rooms to the neighouring Anglican church to use, as the Sunday school had run out of space. They eventually built a new hall to house the younger children, but it was a lovely experience of caring for one another and being good neighours.
Very slow and lazy day today. I had a really terrible sleep and am hoping for better tonight!
Great to hear you enjoyed Jesus Christ Superstar, interesting to compare a prior performance, and the other activities. Thoughts and prayers for your mother-in-law.
Lovely indeed. Thank you for sharing.
I hope you are sleeping better than I am tonight!
However, I am now totally melting and sticking to only inside jobs. Cheery husband is toughing it out in the garden as his improvements involve the watering system and that needs to be finished as everything is on a timer.
I echo WITG's suggestion of a mini meet, maybe next time!!
We're expecting fewer (4) cyclones than some previous seasons, but they'll be stronger. Of course, they can be offshore, or smack some other poor dears north or south of us. Kirrily let us off lightly this time last year.
Today is very much a do nothing day. It's hotter than I can cope with, so I am not doing any jobs, other than running the dishwasher. Good thing there are plenty of good things to listen to online, or TV to watch. Fluffy cat is hiding in the wardrobe where it's cool, short haired cat has been lying on the bed with me, catching the breeze off the aircon. Temperatures to drop tomorrow and even if it's only a couple of days, I will take it!!
Temp has dropped from 42.2 to a pleasant 22, will be good for sleeping. Lots of lightening, thunder and rain.
Spent the long weekend in the Blue Mountains with friends, managed 2 walks and much conversation - some of which was rather weighty. The previous weekend we caught the last performance of the Leura Shakespeare Festival (Much Ado about Nothing) in the open air at Everglades Gardens. Rather fun!
As for yesterday, that was proper hot. Lawn mowing was delayed until today, which was after I got pummeled by the physio. Quiet arvo planned, although there’s still lots of bits and pieces to pick up in the garden post various storms.
mr curly
"Oh dear, we've had a lot of rain, we weren't expecting that". It only happens every Northern Wet season you imbeciles of both parties.
It is a disgrace. The effing Brisbane and Canberra pollies think that Queensland highways end at Gympie and Ipswich.
No point in putting this in Hell, nobody outside of Qld would know what I'm enraged about.
Nasty.
Not even us Mexicans?
Well, I suppose if you're trying to get to Cairns on holiday ...
Just below 40 yesterday; 25 today. A glorious storm which cooled things down. Celebrated my eldest niece's 20th at an Indian/Pizza place (yes) at Morpeth.
Ploughing through the mandatory training before the school year...
Sounds wonderful. Albury and Palmerston North (NZ) had (hopefully still have...) Shakespeare in the Botanic Gardens which was enjoyable. Some beautiful walks in the Mountains... I only discovered Blackheath's Grand Canyon walk last year, despite decades of visits.