Feb 28, Monday

Today felt cold!!  I looked out the office window to see people in jackets walking past.  It's been a while since I saw that.  It drizzled on and off in Melbourne and Mick said tonight that he had about 10mm of rain at home. 

Feb 27, Sunday

It was cool over night with a bit of rain but then another pleasantly warm day.  This afternoon a cool change came through and the breeze is quite brisk.  The cicadas are still making a racket tonight.

On the theme of our fast changing garden....

2006 - front corner was totally bare

2007 - a few months after planting

2009 - well established

2010 - trees growing well and flowers everywhere!

Feb 26, Saturday

A warm start to the day and it was quite hot to stand out in the sun.  The afternoon brought a cool change and a bit of drizzle.

We were talking today about what a change there has been in our garden in the last 5 years. 
This has been the progress of our vegie garden....

2003 - the beginning - no side fence or chicken run

2005 - starting to grow a little better

2007 - doubled the size - using an old water tank for garden beds

2008 - picket fence to provide some protection and keep the chickens from laying in the strawberries!

2010 - growing well

Feb 25, Friday

It reached 30 degrees today so quite a warm day.  When I walked the dog I got chatting to a neighbour about the green grass we see everywhere at this time of the Summer.  Unheard of.  I looked at my photos and found this one of our yard in the peak of a previous Summer. 

Feb 24, Thursday

A sunny day but not too hot.  It's always amazing how much bite the sun has, even on a day like this.  Out in the vegie garden for 15 minutes and it was biting my back!

Feb 23, Wednesday

A little warmer today.  Tonight the cicadas are noisy again and the setting sun is filtering through the trees at the back of our property.  My idea of a perfect day!

Feb 22, Tuesday

Cool and comfortable again today.  No fun stuck in the office all day though!

And again courtesy of my brother... the Walhalla Goldfields Railway

Feb 21, Monday

I'd almost say it was cold today!  And windy too.

Here's an Aussie photo courtesy of my brother.....

Walhalla Fire Station - built 1901

Feb 20, Sunday

Much cooler today.  The breeze is so cool that we've closed the back door.  Still, this morning was pleasant enough gardening in the sun.  We hung the washing out to dry and then had to run out to bring it in when it started raining.  Sunny again late afternoon.

Point Lonsdale pier on our last visit to the Bellarine Peninsula

Feb 19, Saturday

A cool, pleasant day today.  Mick mowed.. again...
There has been no break this year from mowing the grass and weeds.  Usually in Summer there is nothing growing.  This year our vegetable garden has flourished all the way through Summer.  Mick has mowed every single weekend.

We picked blackberries in the gold diggings today.  They are plump and juicy for the first time in the 11 years that we've had this house.  Fantastic!

A full moon tonight.  I saw it as we drove home just now and ran across the road to take a photo with my phone.  Not the clearest in the fast disappearing light.

Feb 18, Friday

Very warm again despite the forecast of rain.  After lunch it clouded over and now, at 9.30pm we are listening to rain on the roof.

We've never had our vegetable garden growing as it is right now.  Look!!

The belladonna lillies appear towards the end of Summer

Feb 17, Thursday

The weather is rather consistent at the moment. We had another day just over 30 degrees.  It's cooled down for the evening.   This week the weather forecast has predicted rain each day but so far it hasn't come.

This Summer we've hardly needed to use our cooling.  We've had it on for a few hours in the afternoon on the hot days but there's been none of the unbearably hot nights where we would have the cooling blowing all night.

Feb 16, Wednesday

Warm again today but on the way home from Melbourne the temperature started dropping.  It rained a little too.  A pleasantly cool evening.

Our favourite place to sit at home

Feb 15, Tuesday

Today was a bit warmer again - just over 30 degrees late afternoon.  In fact, it was still 29 degrees at 7pm when I met up with a friend in Melbourne.

From the front verandah of the house we bought

Feb 14, Monday

Another warmish day.  It's starting to feel like we won't be getting any more extremely hot days this Summer.  I sure hope I'm right.

Feb 13, Sunday

Despite a forecast for an overcast day we woke to bright sunshine.  Today's washing went on the line outside.  It was a perfect Sunday morning for gardening and we spent a couple of hours in our front garden.

We drove out to Bell's Swamp this afternoon (on the Bridgewater-Maldon Road).  The road has now been closed for 3 or 4 weeks due to the flooding.   It hasn't been a swamp for the last 10 years but now the water has been sitting there for weeks.  Makes for a long drive around for people living on the other side.

This is an intersection and you might be able to just make out the street signs both on the left and the right.  Who knows what state the road surface will be in once the water is either pumped out, drains away or evaporates.

Feb 12, Saturday

Quite a mild day and overcast. The washing was hung on a rack and the collapsible washing line.  It cooled late afternoon and by the time we went out to dinner with our neighbours Mick wanted a jacket.  We were treated to the remains of a lovely red sunset on our way home from dinner.  It was dusk but the Western horizon was awash with pink edged clouds.

Princess Poppy

Feb 11, Friday

We had some rain last night, through the open window too.  The day was overcast and rather humid.  It only reached mid 20's which is at least comfortable.  Our vegetable garden is growing like never before - it looks like it's been on steroids!  It's all rather untidy though with the rain knocking plants over.  Strangely we've lost a couple of established almond trees this year.  Maybe they just can't cope with this rain. 

I noticed this photo from the lavender farm today and although I've already posted a couple I thought this one was worth posting too.

Feb 10, Thursday

It was overcast today but quite warm, a bit windy and well on the way to 30 degrees in Melbourne. 

The weather channel said our home area would be cloudy with rain developing.  By the time I got home this evening it was hot and horribly humid.  It's overcast but not a drop of rain.  It's 27 degrees inside the house and the evaporative cooling is useless with this humidity.  We've waited for the outside temperature to come down to something closer to what's inside so we could turn on the fan of the evaporative cooler and at least move some air around. What a relief.

We do much prefer our evaporative cooling to refrigerated cooling.  We can leave a couple of windows or doors open and the air feels much fresher and less artificial.  In Melbourne we had maybe 4-6 days each Summer that were too humid for the evaporative cooling to be effective.  Here in Central Victoria it usually only happens once or twice each Summer, if at all.  This year, although we've had so few really hot days, we've had several days of extreme humidity.  I think I'd trade the humid 30 for a dry 40!

Feb 9, Wednesday

Today was another pleasant Summer day, and not too hot!  Stuck in the office all day so only got to see it out the window.  Made me wish I could be out enjoying the sun when it wasn't blistering heat.  

Here's one of our favourite weekends away.  We usually go there for our birthdays in June - in the middle of Winter.  The sky in this photo looked like todays weather.

Our favourite weekend away - Barwon Heads. View from the Boathouse.

The Boathouse accomodation at Barwon Heads

Feb 8, Tuesday

Lovely sunny morning at home today.  The visitors we put off on Saturday came up today and the weather was glorious.  There isn’t a single cloud in the sky and butterflies and dragonflies are busy in the garden.  This is my idea of a perfect Summer day.

Feb 7, Monday

It got much cooler last night and then we had a cool day in Melbourne.   

Didn’t see much of it – stuck in the office all day.

Feb 6, Sunday

Another cool day with not so much rain.  It feels so strange when we drive around and see all the green front lawns and roadsides.  It just doesn’t feel like Summer!  This time of year would usually be tinder dry with not a blade of green grass in sight.

Feb 5, Saturday

It rained all night…. heavy, driving rain.  We’re expecting an overseas visitor and an old family friend from the city but after driving down at 7am to check the road into town we rang them and told them not to come.  The road is totally flooded again. 

The temperature was cool – around 20 degrees – but it won't be easy getting the washing dry.

Feb 4, Friday

4^th Feb Friday.  Rain. All day.  There’s talk of new flooding in Victoria from all this rain.  We have little rivers running down the street already.  It’s a cool day but not really cold.  It looks like the rain has really set in.

Feb 3, Thursday

I sat up late last night watching the coverage about cyclone Yasi. I went to bed before it hit but kept waking up thinking about what might be happening. Today it seems the damage was less than was expected but still there are so many people left homeless, towns destroyed, businesses wiped out.

Not as warm as yesterday but when I drove home in the afternoon it was much hotter at home than it had been in Melbourne.  It got to the mid 30's at home.

Feb 2, Wednesday

Cyclone Yasi is due to hit the Queensland coast tonight.  It’s all anyone is talking about.  Every single news coverage is filled with cyclone talk. Thousands of people have evacuated and towns along the coast around Innisfail are preparing for the worst.  

It was quite a warm day in Melbourne.

Feb 1, Tuesday

There’s a cyclone on the way to Queensland.  As if the flooding from last month wasn’t bad enough, Queensland is about to be hit with much worse.  It was extremely hot today – reaching 40 degrees.  This is the type of day we normally get in Summer.

January

I only decided to start keeping this blog in early February so January is just one entry.  From here I'll try to post daily.


It's been a unusual start to the year.  What would usually have been an extremely hot month in Central Victoria has been strangely mild but incredibly wet.  For the second time in just a few months we've been isolated by flood waters blocking roads into town.  I had a frightening experience driving through a fast moving flood across the road to get home one day.

Next day we had two trees fall over our chicken run - simply fell over by the roots.

There were a couple of hot days but we didn't once need the cooling on to sleep at night.  Unbelievable.

A couple of flood water photos :

A flooded paddock

A river appearing from nowhere

 And lunch at Lavandula lavender farm on a lovely sunny day