Surviving the Outback Heat

For some of my readers who are waiting for news of bub's arrival, he is doing what the young doctor at the hospital said about boys and is showing a bit reluctance to leave home :-) Meanwhile a check on the baby at the hospital every two days is now the norm with the option of a Friday or Monday induction but hopefully he will arrive without any intervention. So while we wait for the big day we are trying to cope with 43C days which isn't a problem if you can stay home in the cool but with having to go to the hospital for checkups and coming out into the heat to get into a car which has been baking in the sun for a few hours, it does become more of a challenge.

Before you start thinking that the Outback sky is purple and blue...the above photo has been edited as I have found a new photo editing toy that I can play with offline. Drinking more fluids than normal seems to be the way to go up here in order to prevent dehydration. I did a quick...make that very quick look around the garden yesterday around 5pm when the heat was possibly at its peak as the sun doesn't go down till after 7.30pm in the North West and the plants were definitely showing the effects of the heat.

The former owners of the house my daughter and her husband bought had a beautiful garden but with many years of missing out on the wet seasons which much of the rest of Queensland experienced, it has become more difficult to maintain it as the level of water in Lake Moondarra, the city's water supply, has become quite low and water restrictions are in place although they are not nearly as strict as those we had in Toowoomba before the floods of 2011 as properties here don't have water storage tanks because of the nearby mine. We were able to use the tank water to keep our plants alive during the drought.

Still, some plants are surviving quite nicely due to a lot of TLC and hopefully there will be a couple of storms this week as the clouds are rolling in. The local substation was hit by lightning in last week's storm and the power was off for three hours. I heard that businesses had to close up and staff went home and the two big supermarkets had to throw out a lot of food. As the cooling system here goes 24/7, not having electricity to run it in such harsh weather can be a matter of life and death if you have a baby or elderly person in the house.

 

Lots of ferns and palms have been planted in front of the western side of the house which provide some shade in the late afternoon but it is still too hot to sit out there at this time of the year unfortunately. Palms are very popular in the area and look quite impressive...

...and this is what happens to your thongs (flip flops for my northern hemisphere friends) when they are left in the sunshine all morning. Walking in them is quite the experience! :-)

Thenk you for all your comments. I would love to answer them but am using my limited phone data and also the internet connection here leaves much to be desired. At least I can use this Blogsy App offline. I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season and not getting stressed with the busyness that often is part of preparing for having family and friends visit.

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