Collector, NSW | Time to ACT

So we find ourselves on the downhill approach to Christmas and waiting for the weather to get hot, scrub that, hotter.

We’ve not had any rain sadly this Spring and that means everything is tinder dry and the fire season has been really bad. There’s a fire not far (3 miles) from our old home on the outskirts of Bungendore. Sadly the Talleganda National Park had been pretty much burnt to the ground. It has been confirmed that it was a lightning strike that started the fire. And that storm was largely a dry lightning storm. Something we seem to get a lot of here in Australia. Over 38,000 hectares have been burnt but that’s less than a third of what is on fire down the road at the coast where 90,000 hectares is on fire and not likely to be brought under control any time soon. Thankfully the Talleganda NP fire is being brought under control now by back burning. There simply is no water to use to put these fires out. But both of these fires combined don’t cover a quarter of what is on fire around Sydney where air quality is very badly affected.

We’ve had some eerie mornings where you can see the smoke approaching and as such end up with interesting sunrises in apricots and reds. The moon at night had also been affected and I’ve often seen it hazy red and even just opening the window blinds has produced the smokey smell despite the windows themselves still being closed. Needless too say this isn’t much fun because the weather is now very hot during the day and at night you want to open the doors and windows to cool down but you simply can’t. Everything has to remain locked up tight and you can’t get any fresh air. It’s been playing havoc with my asthma as well. Plus you can’t get the washing on the line to dry because of the smell of smoke in your clothes and bedding. Curiously, the smoke haze we are getting isn’t from the closest major fire either. It’s from the coastal fire 100km away.

Driving along Lake George can sometimes be quite eerie when you get smoke doing this.

Then quite suddenly you’ll drive out of it.

Spring came and went very quickly this year because of the dryness and total lack of rain. But the rose put on an amazing display as ever.

These images are all from the one rose bush. The flowers start off yellow and “fade’ to red as the day goes by.

We’ve also had excellent weather for something known as Sun Halos. The clouds in the upper stratosphere must be of a particular type and formation for the halo to form.

I just love watching the sky to see what will happen next. We’ve had a good many dust storms recently as well which have turned the sky brown and filled everything full of dust and dirt. Keeping the house clean is exceptionally hard work at the moment because of it.

We’ve had a few nice sunrises and sunsets as well but they haven’t been as good as early spring or winter gives. But they’ve been nice to see and watch before the day gets too hot.

Finally it is that time of year… advent calendars and Christmas tree hunting…

And chicks… let’s not forget those. The first brood have arrived, broods 2 & 3 are sitting and a 4th will start sitting on suitable eggs Sunday after record breaking temperatures have passed. Saturday is going to be officially very hot at 44°C, though Thursday is also trying hard 42°C and tomorrow and Friday forecast to be 40°C.

Spring is well and truly happening. My wonderful yellow rose is trying to flower.

The bottlebrush is just showing the first flowers, but I think the main display is a few weeks off.

The lawn has flowered magnificently much to Stuart’s dismay! Known as Cape Daisies, they make up much of the lawn.

And my lavenders are in full bloom. The grape vine is a mass of leaves and buds.

The apple, apricot, pear, quince and still unidentified soft fruit with a hard stone (most likely peach or nectarines) have all had their sudden flurry of flowers and are now starting to leaf (or grow more in one case, out leafs before it flowers).

The Jasmine is probably no more than a week away from full flower, but already smells heavenly at night when it is still. The family of weebills are raising yet another brood in it again but this year have made no attempt to hide the nest.

We’ve moved some of the agapanthus from deep under a pine tree where it was really struggling from lack of water, to under the 2 main bedroom windows. It still gets little to no water but it is where we empty our grey water to and where I’ll be planting courgettes and squashes very soon. We keep on getting warmer and warmer spells but each weekend it drops again back to frosts overnight. So, this week started with the fire lit on Monday morning because it had been only 3°C overnight, but by Tuesday it was 26°C and yesterday was 33°C. The forecast is for another 3°C again on Monday morning, so we’re not yet out of the woods or no longer needing it when it comes to planting out my seedlings into the veg plot or to no longer requiring a fire!

The only thing that is definite is that water is going to be a very precious resource this year. We’ve had very little rain through Autumn, Winter or the start of Spring and the water table is very low.

I’ve found a lovely unknown and unidentified flower at the bottom of the garden, hiding behind both quince trees.

All I know is that it is a succulent so I may try to transfer some of it to the stone circle in the front lawn.

We’ve been having some interesting weather but usually without rain. It’s happened elsewhere as in these 2 pictures taken a day apart on my daily walk to the letterbox.