Shortlived relief from the heat

Today we had a 'cool' day...if you can call 31C cool. There have been storms in Brisbane and on the coast and, although there weren't any here, it really cooled down this afternoon which was so nice after continuous hot days which have become rather tiring. We did have a storm on Wednesday during which we received 8mm but there were heavier falls in other areas as well as damaging hail for some farmers in Stanthorpe in which they lost most of their crops but hopefully the rain was just simply a blessing for some of our struggling farmers and they sustained no damage.

Heatwaves and Fires

The last few weeks have been horrendous for many Aussies who have been caught in the firing line of the dreadful fires that have swept through New South Wales and Queensland. We have had a couple not all that far from us and it is very daunting to see smoke billowing into the sky just a few kilometres away.

One of the roses I am trying to keep alive in the heat

Heatwave and the annual Backyard Bird Count

We are in the second month of spring and are having a couple of days of heatwave conditions which, from memory, happened last year as well. Once the front has moved though we should be back to normal weather once again. We do have aircon now if it becomes too unbearable but so far we are coping with just the fans going full pelt.

My poor neglected garden

As the past few weeks have been quite hectic with the renovations being carried out and a family member moving out, my garden has had to take a back seat apart from being watered. Before the renos began the CEO removed the kikuyu from the front garden which was quite high and, as he didn't want to use Roundup it proved to be quite a big job. Of course it is an ongoing procedure as it is such an invasive pest in the garden. At the same time he dug up some of the hundreds of dahlia bulbs he has planted over the years and replanted some of them and now they are starting to flower so hopefully we will have a few showers in the coming week to help them along. Firstly though starting tomorrow we have two hot days in the mid thirties before it cools down mid week. Our northern friends have been doing it tough with 40C days on the coast as well as inland plus there are currently 120 fires burning and to top it off it looks like a cyclone might be forming off the Queensland coast.

Halfway through the heatwave....whew!

Here in Queensland much of the state is experiencing heatwave conditions and I heard on the news tonight that the temperature out in Birdsville is in the mid forties which is roughly about 113F if you live in the Northern Hemisphere. In our 'cooler' climate it is 36C with two more really hot days to get through before the temperatures drop by 10C. Thankfully.

Out of kilter

Does anyone use the expression 'Out of kilter' any more? I remember my parents saying that quite regularly many years ago during conversations. I think that describes how I feel at the moment. Last week's terrible heatwave meant that each day was spent just finding ways to survive the heat and everything else got put on hold. It was too hot to cook sourdough, too hot to put the dehydrator on, too hot to cook a meal in our Western facing kitchen and so on.

Another week of heat!

As Aussies who watch the news may be aware, Queensland is in for heatwave conditions this week and records are expected to tumble. After our recent very cool weather it is all a bit of a shock but there is no way to escape the heat short of taking a trip to Tasmania, or Canada or Alaska so plans are in place to survive it including a trip to the cinema if it all gets too much.  How lovely and cool all that snow looks at the winter Olympics. Strangely enough the Craft Alive show has been held the second year in the row during a heatwave and thankfully I was able to go there yesterday when the temperature was a 'cool' 30C and certainly not as hot as it will be tomorrow at 38C.

Summer, Winter, Summer, Winter!

What extraordinary weather we had last week! On Wednesday it was 35C and then the temperature plummeted to 15C on Friday and we were back to winter weather. Apparently it was the coldest February day for many years. I was glad I hadn't packed away my winter jumpers and track pants as they were certainly needed as was the rain that arrived with the cooler weather.

Hot chillies, hot weather, hot Christmas

Everything seems to be hot at the moment! Not only is the weather really heating up after a relatively cool summer up until now but the hot chillies I planted a few months ago are flowering and starting to produce 'fruit' as I have read that technically they are a fruit :-)

Soap with Spirulina

A friend let me know that ALDI had Spirulina on special this past week as she was keen to try it in soap as was I so I bought a packet to do some experimenting. To be honest I knew nothing about Spirulina apart from the fact that it was very expensive to buy but when I opened the packet....oh, the smell! What on earth was in this stuff??? So I did an online search and came up with What is Spirulina and it turns out it is a ' spiral-shaped microalgae that grows naturally in the wild in warm, fresh water lakes.' Hence the smell of seaweed.

Jam Making, Craft Shows and Heatwaves

There are a few events going on in our neck of the woods this month. We have our first Simple Living Toowoomba workshop of the year on the 18th and it will be a jam making workshop presented by Glenys who showed all three of us how to make pickles at our first ever workshop back in 2012. I can't believe it was that long ago. By the way if you would like the recipe for the Cauliflower Pickles Glenys made then just click on the link.

Dishcloths and Sew Alongs

There seemed to be a lot of interest in the Garden Dishcloths to Knit book that I mentioned recently. So far I have only knitted one of the dishcloths in the book but plan to knit some more when my brain isn't being pickled by this protracted heat wave. If I survive the 38C days coming up on Sunday and Monday I will start on another one. It is a bit hard to concentrate when you have sweat pouring off you during such hot days :-) So now I have finished my dishcloths for January and February in the Down to Earth forum's Dishcloth Challenge as I am knitting one a month.

The Seasons of Life

I became very aware of the seasons of life this past week with the death of my father-in-law who was in his nineties and who was the last of my children's grandparents. After that sad event there just seemed to be a week of bad news some of which I won't mention but to cap it all off my sister rang to say that her doctor is almost 100% sure that she has Graves Disease. After being unwell off and on for over three years now it is almost a relief to finally have a diagnosis after being told for years that there was nothing wrong.

 

The storm before the calm

Well there wasn't too much calm before the band of storms rolled across our region late yesterday. I think everyone was just plain exhausted and crabby from the unbearable heat during our second heatwave in just a few weeks. New Years Eve was so hot I thought I may not survive to see the first day of 2017 :-) However, after the four inches of rain that fell here last night it has cooled down once again and we can all breathe easily as the calm returns.

 

Heatwave--GO AWAY!

I don't want to sound like I am having a winge but I am of course...it is just too hot for our normally cool temperate region! Day after day of 36C (96.8F) heat tends to become a bit hard to take when you aren't used to it and especially if you live in an old timber house with no aircon. However, there are only two days left of above 30C weather and then we will be back to normal once again. I guess if you lived in an area where these temperatures were common in summer it would be wise to invest in aircon.

A dismal end of summer garden

If you would like to read about successful and thriving vegetable gardens then you might just like to click onto the next blog in your feed as there is nothing to inspire you in this blog post. Normally at this time of the year I am trying to find ways to use up all the cucumbers, tomatoes etc. that are growing but not this summer. I didn't think we had a terribly hot summer apart from a week of dreadful humidity and a couple of days when it was 35C or 36C but perhaps we didn't get as much rain as we normally do. It can get a tad discouraging but I thought I would make a note of how dismal the garden is looking this particular year for future reference.  Firstly though I will show you a couple of photos of a double rainbow that appeared on Sunday as there were storms around but not here unfortunately.

Cooking sourdough in a slow cooker

Well, it has been hot, hot, hot for the last couple of days. I mean 36C may not seem hot to someone from Perth, Adelaide and definitely Mt.Isa where the 'normal' summer temperature is 40C or upwards but it is definitely hot for us in our supposedly cool temperature climate. As it was quite mild last week when I took Gertrude, my sourdough starter, out of the fridge to wake her up and she wasn't happy and didn't co-operate until a couple of days later when she was ready to bake, I thought I would wake her up during a heatwave to see what happened. Well, she woke up in a hurry and was ready for baking in no time. The only problem was it was too hot to turn the oven on in 36C heat!

What a bizarre spring!

I know that there is usually a bit of unsettled weather that comes with the change of seasons but temperatures of 35C (95F) and upwards in a cool temperate zone are a bit hard to take for those of us who are used to easing into the warmer weather and gradually doing away with the multiple layers of winter clothes. 

Goodbye October. You won't be missed!

October....what a month! It turned out to be one of the driest months on record and the ground is bone dry. The forecasted 'possible storms' rarely eventuated and even with the weekend forecast being for rain I don't think anyone is holding their breath. Unfortunately I didn't realise the heat would be so prolonged and didn't cover my seedlings one day resulting in many of them shrivelling up. Thankfully I was able to rescue some and covering them each morning has since become a daily ritual.