Tag Archives: cold

Australia, Bungendore, NSW

Shortest Day of the Year

So the shortest day of the year started with our coldest night yet.

-‍6C on the sheltered veranda.  It came as a surprise, as did the fact that we still had water!  We have had a couple of issues with the water supply freezing.  I’m not sure if I have mentioned the madness of having to dig up the water pipes to locate them, so that I could bury them properly… It was not an amusing day with Stuart away from home and the hardness of the ground here.  So once the chooks had been fed, I had to take my newly acquired gift, a crowbar, to the ground to dig holes in the garden to try to find a pipe, only to have to bury it again sometime later…  It actually wasn’t that long ago.  30th May.  It was a Tuesday.  I was less than amused.

I have just spent the morning digging to find an exposed pipe so that I could bury it again.
I believe I may have accidentally buried my sense of humour along with the pipe instead of my jobs list.
The irony of this situation is not lost on me, unlike my sense of humour which presumably won’t freeze overnight.

But it has paid off.  It was much colder last night and we still had water this morning, so all we need to do now is to get some grass growing over the soil we added… After all this is Australia so it shouldn’t be that difficult to get grass to grow, should it?

We actually consider this to be buried deeply. After all it is as deep as this water pipe gets!
Starting with the square metal post in the middle bottom of the picture, the line of bamboo canes is the water pipe course leading directly to the base of the emergency water tank.

 

And that soil in the bottom of the last picture, is all that stops the water pipe from freezing because the pipe is actually on the surface of the ground due to a major lack of soil!

So this morning, it was a glorious morning.  Hoar frost, -6C, water, the pond was frozen (OK not very thick, but enough for a complete layer), the water inside the chook house was frozen but the water in the newbies quarters (the old building used as a quarantine area) felt positively warm.  So with chooks in various locations all fed & watered and unlocked, I was able to go walkabout with a camera in hand.

-6C on the sheltered side of the house and on the veranda. A new record low in our time here.
Our view, still frozen and still before the sun gets over the hillside
Frozen but looking good.
Eucalyptus in the frozen sunlight.  I still find it hard getting my head around Australia, Eucalyptus and is being frozen.
Our view, starting to warm up now.
A different angle on our frozen view
In there is the house and the chook house. It puts things into scale!
A spider’s web covered in hoar frost

It wasn`t long before the camera battery was complaining and I had walked as far as I could without either my crutches or my breakfast.  It was time for home.  Breakfast really was calling my name…

Porridge with raspberries and some demerara sugar.
Australia, Bungendore, NSW

If anyone ever tells you Australia…

… is a hot, dry country: DON’T BELEIVE them, they are LYING to you.

It’s cold, it’s wet and the chooks are sheltering under the house again. I’m sitting in the sun room, wearing 2 merino wool layers, a cardigan, Stuart’s thick Arc’teryx cardigan, a woolly hat, woolly socks, wishing I had my thick padded North Wave trousers on instead of my fleeced tracksuit bottoms, and wrapped in mum’s thick blue woollen blanket.  I’m nursing a runny nose with a hot chocolate (unsweetened coconut milk and cocoa powder) and I’m not far off lighting the fire in the sitting room, just need a break in the drizzle and high winds to get in some more wood.  I think it could be a case of a hot toddy tonight.

Sadly it is that kind of wet that is useless for filling water tanks from roofs, just exceptionally good at making the place cold and wet.

There was a momentary, glorious sunrise this morning, momentary in the briefest of senses in that Stuart opened the curtains at 6am (curtains are used for warmth, not privacy) to witness it, then it was gone because of the speed at which the clouds were (and still are) moving by.  Right now, it is sunny, the grass is showing green, the horizon is as black as night and even as I type this the sun has gone again.  The horizon is still as black as night, and the one that is going to affect us next is going that way.

This bit of Australia is certainly not hot and sunny, yet.

The forecast for today.

“Southern Tablelands for Thursday Cloudy. Medium (50%) chance of showers, becoming less likely late this afternoon and evening. Snow possible above 1300 metres. Winds NW 35 to 55 km/h turning W 40 to 60 km/h in the early afternoon then decreasing to 25 to 35 km/h in the evening. Daytime maximum temperatures between 10 and 14. “

Canberra AirPort (AP) which is the closest observation post, has recorded gusts of 67kph this afternoon.  We are slightly higher, more into the mountains and I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.  I am seriously considering my own weather station, but finance may get in the way this month!  We may also make it to double figures on the temperature scene, but… brrrrrgh