Friday...17 January 2014

Heck of a hot day today, just like the four before it! The wind has picked up creating nasty conditions to make things much much worse for the fire fighters all over the state. The fire in the Grampians is doing some serious damage. We can see it from our place although it is about 25 - 30 kms away from us as the crow flies. The local radio has been issuing warnings and alerts all day and there are road closures on the main roads into and around the area. Sadly they have also reported one death and building and stock losses over a wide area and have issued an evacuation notice for the entire town of Halls Gap with Dadwells Bridge also being impacted 35kms up the main highway from here. A cool change arrived this evening but the wind has now turned and is blowing straight towards this town. The air is thick with smoke which is giving our noses a bit of a workout.

The unrelenting heat has been affecting all the animals and native birds as well. Today I spotted an owl sitting on the meter box of the daughters house in the middle of the day. I think it was sitting there as it is beside an open window and there was some of the cool air from the air conditioner blowing through the window. The poor thing had its mouth wide open and was too hot to bother to fly away from us or the curious dogs barking underneath the meter box. There is a small fish pond in the garden and many of the native birds are using it as a birdbath to cool themselves (Note to self: check and see if they have also been fishing!)

Us humans have spent most of the heatwave sitting inside in the air conditioning watching the tennis and cricket and eating simple meals that require little or no preparation and cooking.

Thursday...16 January 2014

Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to Me!  These are my surprise birthday flowers all the way from Queensland. Who is a lucky girl?

And I get the nice warm weather too. Today is going to be 45. Wind has been blowing a gale and we can clearly see lots of smoke coming from a fire somewhere in the Grampians. Just looked that one up on the CFA website and it is in fact two fires burning toward each other. God Bless our firefighters on days like today. They can use all the help they can get from where ever it is available.

Monday...13 January 2014

Yep summer has arrived! We are promised a five day stretch of 40+. Should be nice and warm. Need to keep an eye on the sky just in case another idiot tries to farm on a total fire ban day. Have turned on the air conditioner and the tennis and will keep movement to a minimum and all will be well.
Other than that I got nothing!

Wednesday...8 January 2014

Yesterday I logged in to this blog to write an entry but then found that I simply could not find the words for what I wanted to say and while I was looking for inspiration I got side tracked. The moment has passed so I guess I will have to wait until next year.
The weather has warmed slightly again. Is this summer I see coming?

Sunday...5 January 2014

The tail end of Cyclone Christine has arrived in Victoria! At least I think it has.
For the past two days it has been blowing a gale here and the temperatures have dropped into the low 20's. Our caravan is tucked into the shed which is providing plenty of shelter for us but the wind is so strong it is still making the van rock even inside the shed. We are all getting around with jumpers and long pants on. No doubt the real summer will finally arrive one day and we will all complain that it is too hot and half of us will have colds from the ever changing hot and cold crazy weather.
Will spend the day baking as I have  promised the grandchildren lots more of Nanny's tasty tucker.

Friday...3 January 2014

Love the lazy post Christmas days of summer. The world feels like it is marching on the spot, just waiting for the command to move forward into the working part of the new year. Around us the harvest is done and farmers are tidying their farms so that they too can have a bit of down time before the next cycle starts.

We sleep late, watch the cricket and tennis on television and stay up late to watch the Hopman Cup (more tennis) although it would be nice to see the Aussies just a little closer to the top of that event!

Housework is kept to a minimum and meal service is relaxed and light. A very pleasant hiatus in what is otherwise a busy life as we go about our travels. We have had much discussion on possible places to visit this year but as yet no serious decisions have been made.

Wednesday...1 January 2014

Happy New Year!