A weather rant
G'day all!
The weather in Melbourne has been rather unusual for over a week now.
Last week started off sunny and clear. Then as the week wore on, it became more and more humid. For the last five or six days, we have had afternoon thunderstorms. The wind has been from the north west, when there is a wind. We did have a sea breeze on a couple of days, admittedly.
This is WRONG, people! WRONG I tell you!
This is Melbourne, in Spring! Melbourne in spring means four seasons in one day. Hot, cold, moderate, sunny, windy, rainy, hail. Not this constant humidity and thunderclouds rolling in. We haven't had a cold front go through for nearly two weeks. I've been able to wander around inside the house without wearing socks, let alone shoes. I had four days wearing sandals. We haven't needed to use the heater once. That is plain not normal!
Admittedly we are getting little dumps of rain, which is excellent for the garden cos we have not had a lot of rain so far this October. I was digging in the garden last week and only the top 10cm of soil/mulch was damp. Under that it was dusty dry. October is one of our wettest months usually. I guess that isn't saying much. Melbourne used to get about 600mm of rain a year, mostly in winter but every month gets a certain amount of rain. In the last 10 or so years, we haven't been getting much rain in March and the April showers that usually break the drought haven't arrived either. Some years we've gotten a fair whack less rain than normal. This year we had very little rain between Feb to May, except for the huge dump (170mm or about 7") in one day in early Feb (and Feb is usually one of our driest months).
There has been enough rain to help orchids like this little Thelymitra flower, though the flowers were quite small - only a bit over a centimetre across.
(I must remember to blog the little drive we did to a little bit of orchid heaven.)
It isn't stopping my roses from blooming, though someone had a little problem after spraying them with white oil last week. They were becoming covered in aphids so I sprayed them nice and early with something relatively non-toxic (at least to me!) in the day to avoid burning them. The stuff supposedly burns only when it hits 30 degrees or more. It got to 25 last week at most. Every last rose I sprayed has either lost all its new soft growth or has terrible spots wherever the spray landed. This was with premixed spray too. D'oh! Lesson learned - don't spray the roses with white oil when they are in spring growth.
See the funny spots on this Graham Thomas flower? They are white oil induced. Doesn't seem to have stopped this bubby katy-did from hatching, and I bet it will start chomping away RSN. They like Graham and since he is such a big strong rose, I let them chomp a bit.
Last night's sunset - lots of sullen clouds with bright colour behind them, like dour buildings in harsh climes with bright carpets and walls inside.
Today's dorky moment: going to lean on my desk - my hand was already supporting my chin - and discovering my desk was not where my elbow thought it was.
Cheshire can beat me for dorky moments though:
Today's annoying moment: MS Word. What a pile of something unrepeatable. One particular entry in a table MUST be in Heading 3 format. Nothing else is but this MUST be in a stupid format. It refuses to have it in any other format. Normal style? You gotta be kidding!
Today's unco moment, aka a painful moment: Deciding to take the stairs down into the station two at a time. Unfortunately I had a brain attack where I interpreted what I saw through my glasses as being real, when I know I have to look right down or look under my glasses to ensure it is real, and planted my right foot firmly off the edge of the second stair. Did you know that it really hurts when you fall onto the next step on the top of your foot and then go flailing off down the steps trying not to fall flat on your face? One guy thought I was going to land on him. I thought I was going to smack my front teeth out on the tiles. Instead only two steps later I was off and hobbling to my train. Everything still works, sort of, so I figure I've only given myself Yet Another (Relatively) Mild Sprain. I haven't taken my shoe off yet cos I figure it will control any swelling in the foot region. The ankle can puff away as it chooses.
Only problem is that I can't really do much of turning this into this when my main treadling ankle is uncooperative:
House update. We are now in a dilemma. We quite liked the first place we saw, despite its flaws. Should we put in an offer for it or not? It will need a lot of work done in the bathroom and we want to have solar hot water, maybe boosted through an instantaneous gas hot water system. The kitchen will need fixing too cos it is teensy at present. Everything runs on electrickery not gas and we want gas. Nathan wants to knock out some walls and redo the laundry whilst he is at it. I want to check out another place that is not so well placed for the station. I just can't find the time to do that. Hmmm....
OK, I reckon that will do you for the evening! I have so much that I have not blogged due to lack of time. I would really like to set up a few posts and publish them but at present my days are just disappearing in a flash, even though I am back at work. Work will pay for a house, eventually. Must work!
anon!
The weather in Melbourne has been rather unusual for over a week now.
Last week started off sunny and clear. Then as the week wore on, it became more and more humid. For the last five or six days, we have had afternoon thunderstorms. The wind has been from the north west, when there is a wind. We did have a sea breeze on a couple of days, admittedly.
This is WRONG, people! WRONG I tell you!
This is Melbourne, in Spring! Melbourne in spring means four seasons in one day. Hot, cold, moderate, sunny, windy, rainy, hail. Not this constant humidity and thunderclouds rolling in. We haven't had a cold front go through for nearly two weeks. I've been able to wander around inside the house without wearing socks, let alone shoes. I had four days wearing sandals. We haven't needed to use the heater once. That is plain not normal!
Admittedly we are getting little dumps of rain, which is excellent for the garden cos we have not had a lot of rain so far this October. I was digging in the garden last week and only the top 10cm of soil/mulch was damp. Under that it was dusty dry. October is one of our wettest months usually. I guess that isn't saying much. Melbourne used to get about 600mm of rain a year, mostly in winter but every month gets a certain amount of rain. In the last 10 or so years, we haven't been getting much rain in March and the April showers that usually break the drought haven't arrived either. Some years we've gotten a fair whack less rain than normal. This year we had very little rain between Feb to May, except for the huge dump (170mm or about 7") in one day in early Feb (and Feb is usually one of our driest months).
There has been enough rain to help orchids like this little Thelymitra flower, though the flowers were quite small - only a bit over a centimetre across.
(I must remember to blog the little drive we did to a little bit of orchid heaven.)
It isn't stopping my roses from blooming, though someone had a little problem after spraying them with white oil last week. They were becoming covered in aphids so I sprayed them nice and early with something relatively non-toxic (at least to me!) in the day to avoid burning them. The stuff supposedly burns only when it hits 30 degrees or more. It got to 25 last week at most. Every last rose I sprayed has either lost all its new soft growth or has terrible spots wherever the spray landed. This was with premixed spray too. D'oh! Lesson learned - don't spray the roses with white oil when they are in spring growth.
See the funny spots on this Graham Thomas flower? They are white oil induced. Doesn't seem to have stopped this bubby katy-did from hatching, and I bet it will start chomping away RSN. They like Graham and since he is such a big strong rose, I let them chomp a bit.
Even more random bits
Last night's sunset - lots of sullen clouds with bright colour behind them, like dour buildings in harsh climes with bright carpets and walls inside.
Today's dorky moment: going to lean on my desk - my hand was already supporting my chin - and discovering my desk was not where my elbow thought it was.
Cheshire can beat me for dorky moments though:
Today's annoying moment: MS Word. What a pile of something unrepeatable. One particular entry in a table MUST be in Heading 3 format. Nothing else is but this MUST be in a stupid format. It refuses to have it in any other format. Normal style? You gotta be kidding!
Today's unco moment, aka a painful moment: Deciding to take the stairs down into the station two at a time. Unfortunately I had a brain attack where I interpreted what I saw through my glasses as being real, when I know I have to look right down or look under my glasses to ensure it is real, and planted my right foot firmly off the edge of the second stair. Did you know that it really hurts when you fall onto the next step on the top of your foot and then go flailing off down the steps trying not to fall flat on your face? One guy thought I was going to land on him. I thought I was going to smack my front teeth out on the tiles. Instead only two steps later I was off and hobbling to my train. Everything still works, sort of, so I figure I've only given myself Yet Another (Relatively) Mild Sprain. I haven't taken my shoe off yet cos I figure it will control any swelling in the foot region. The ankle can puff away as it chooses.
Only problem is that I can't really do much of turning this into this when my main treadling ankle is uncooperative:
House update. We are now in a dilemma. We quite liked the first place we saw, despite its flaws. Should we put in an offer for it or not? It will need a lot of work done in the bathroom and we want to have solar hot water, maybe boosted through an instantaneous gas hot water system. The kitchen will need fixing too cos it is teensy at present. Everything runs on electrickery not gas and we want gas. Nathan wants to knock out some walls and redo the laundry whilst he is at it. I want to check out another place that is not so well placed for the station. I just can't find the time to do that. Hmmm....
OK, I reckon that will do you for the evening! I have so much that I have not blogged due to lack of time. I would really like to set up a few posts and publish them but at present my days are just disappearing in a flash, even though I am back at work. Work will pay for a house, eventually. Must work!
anon!
my aunt swears by mixing up soapy water to spray on her plants to keep the bugs off. seeing as she's had her backyard turned into an actual wildlife rescue, she seems to know what she's doing :) want me to get the mixture amounts from her?
ReplyDeletealso, it's suprising to hear you say you want gas in your new house. most people here seem to be turning away from gas in houses because of how high the prices are going. electic is much more affordable. we have no heat right now (it's averaging about 55F out) because our downstairs neighbors control it, and they can't afford to have the tank filled. i'm giving it one more week before i call the landlord. it's too damn cold to not have heat!
Oh wow, crazy weather, falling down stairs, no spinning. What's next?
ReplyDeleteHope your ankle starts to feel better and that the weather starts acting a little more normal.
Apparently your weather has moved to Sydney. Yesterday dawned nice and sunny. It was getting quite hot around 10am, then the clouds moved in and the rain began. Then the hail. Then the sun came out again for the rest of the day. Silly weather!
ReplyDelete