Autumnly.

 

Right up until Wednesday it still felt like summer. This time last weekend we were complaining about the seemingly never-ending heat.

 

Not so this weekend!

 

The weather is wonderful and so very autumnly: Plenty of sunshine and clear blue skies, but with a hint of coldness in the air, a promise that winter is just around the corner.

 

Autumn is my favourite time of year in the Ranges. The colours contrast and work well together: The evergreen foliage, the red tinge to the dirt and stone, the pale blue sky and the purple hue of the mountains.

 

Yesterday it was far too nice to be indoors, so we took a mini-adventure to a local gorge, and then out past the Willochra and into what I (sarcastically) refer to as "Death Valley"- an endless expanse of saltbush plains and stark mountain outcrops, completely void of trees.

 

Then we returned home for a cuppa and an afternoon snack, sat outside under the veranda, listening to the birds and the buzz of the town.

 

How are you enjoying the season?

 

Dirt Farmer.

 

Today, I show you my dirt.

 

When we first moved back here in 2008, after having spent a decade in the city, it was the middle of autumn. The days were clear and sunny, the nights cool and crisp. There'd be dew in the mornings. The signs of a hot summer were slowly being overgrown by the promise of winter. Perhaps it was just the excitement of starting something new, or the awe of all the wide open space that made me completely oblivious to the dirt.

 

People in the neighbouring towns call us "Dirt Farmers". Our town is situated on flats between the mountain ranges, surrounded by farming and grazing land. Rocky outcrops dominate the horizon, with creeks that are bone-dry most of the time, and saltbush plains that stretch for miles and miles... People plough and plant the same fields every year, keep too much stock and let them overgraze. I thought "Dirt Farmer" was a pretty clever observation, but I never thought it would be a term I'd apply to myself.

 

 

Let me tell you about the dirt: It's everywhere, and not just outside. It's evident not only in the garden or out of town. It is everywhere, all of the time.

 

It doesn't matter what season, or what direction the wind is coming in from. It doesn't even matter if there is no wind at all, or whether the house is open or closed-up, there will still be dirt.

 

It is dirt that covers every surface and finds its way into every corner, nook and cranny. It sits on bricks, stores itself on windowsills, between doors, and on flyscreens. Every time we walk on the hardwood floors we kick it up, move it around and stir the allergies. I can clean it away, but the dirt will be back the next day, making it look as though I've not done a thing.

 

Dirt Farmer.

 

I have developed a new understanding of that term, in its full context. If dirt were worth a dime, I'd be rather well-to-do right now.

 

 

 

Torrent.

 

 

Okay, so last week I was complaining about being stuck inside because of the heat. Well, today I've been indoors on account of the rain, which is something you'll never hear me complain about (L-O-V-E the rain!), but it never ceases to amaze me how quickly, and how dramatically the weather can shift here.

 

Yesterday it was 41*C.

 

Today it's 25*C with torrential downpours.

 

The pictures above were taken during a rainstorm that lasted, at most, fifteen minutes. Within that time, the front yard, the back yard and our street became a raging torrent of water.

 

...Okay. Maybe not a raging torrent, but as close as you'll ever get to one in these past.

 

There was thunder, and lightning, and so much water it set the fire alarm off (yeah, I'm not sure how that works, either).

 

Then the rain stopped and the water promptly soaked away. In half the time it took for the rain to fall, the yard and the street were back to normal.

Sunned in...

 

Today we have a one day reprieve from the sweltering temperatures the south-east of the country has had to endure these past few weeks.

 

At 32 degrees Celsius, and with a southerly breeze, it is a nice change from the 45 degrees we reached yesterday. But the wind today is also pushing the smoke from the Bangor bushfire in our direction, so we are blanketed in a grey, smoggy haze.

 

Tomorrow begins yet another heatwave, with temperatures expect to soar back into the 40s for at least another week.

 

I spend a lot of my time in the early mornings and evenings in the garden, watering the plants as the soil is extremely dry at the moment. I am in need of more Lucerne hay for mulch: The sun is fast disintegrating what is left.

 

We have started putting the sprinkler on in the evenings for a few minutes on the back lawn, and all the birds (including up to ten magpies at any one time!) come swooping in to cool off, take a drink and search for bugs under the spray. We watch them from the kitchen window, in the comfort of an air conditioned house, where indoor activities are all the go.

 

We don't get "snowed in" here; we get "sunned in" instead.

 

How's the weather at your place?

Summer Surprises (in the garden)

[Where the lawn used to be!]

 

Oh! It has been so HOT!

 

We've just come out of a heatwave that lasted over a week and saw temperatures nearing the 50 degrees Celsius mark (that's 122 degrees Fahrenheit) just about every day. We spent the entire week inside, in the dark, with the air conditioning on. The temperature wouldn't fall below 35*C at night, so to stay cool and to limit our electricity use, we camped in the living room, ran the air con on low at a very comfortable 24*C, and shut out the rest of the house.

 

That's another good thing about these old stone buildings: They're not open-plan, as is so popular with modern design, so there aren't large, open spaces that require a lot of energy use to keep cool.

 

 

The garden has suffered a little, as is to be expected. I only water the lawn once a week, just to keep it alive (but not thriving). However, the rest of the garden has not suffered as much as it has in previous years thanks to some well-timed pruning and a heap of Lucerne hay as mulch.

 

In early December I cut back the hardy Hardenbergia to the point where it was nothing more than a twiggy vine. It is now bursting with new growth! It certainly doesn't seem to mind all the sunshine we are having, that's for sure.

 

There are other small surprises in the garden too, including bulbs in flower, sweet alyssum, and button daisies peeking through the mulch. The mulch has been a miracle worker: I only water every few days, and yet the ground stays moist. I have used other kinds of mulch in the past (pine bark, and pea-straw), but Lucerne hay is proving to be the most effective. I would recommend it to any gardener, especially those living in dry, hot climates.

 

It is always nice to find plants thriving and in bloom, but even more so on a day that is 50*C.

 

Summer's Doorstep

 

Our house is over 100 years old. For more than a century it has had to endure a lot of weather, but nothing as hot and as extreme as last summer. With the BoM predicting a repeat this coming summer, we have been busy trying to come up with cost-effective and energy-efficient solutions to stay cool during what looks to be another extremely hot and prolonged summer season. The thought of having to run the air conditioning for weeks on end - yet again - troubles me.

 

Our house already provides us with many advantages: The original part of the house is made of stone and each wall is approximately a foot thick. Combined with high ceilings and small windows, it takes longer to heat up than its modern counterparts. On days like today, where the temperature is expected to near 40 (degrees Celsius), we shouldn't have to turn on the air conditioning. It's only when we experience successive days of extreme heat that it begins to penetrate through to every corner of the house.

 

I have been told that the trick to keeping an old stone house like ours cool during the hottest part of summer is to keep the stone on the inside of the house cool to the touch. Our biggest challenge, however, has nothing to do with stone: The back of the house (where the kitchen, laundry and bathroom are located) is a weatherboard extension with paper-thin walls and a low ceiling. A galvanised iron veranda then extends out from the back door, which bears the brunt of the sun from dawn until mid-afternoon. It gets hot under that veranda and in those back rooms very quickly during a hot spell. This heat then moves through the rest of the house making it warm and stuffy, and quickly heating the interior stone from the inside-out. It is at this point that the air conditioning is switched on in order to try and cool the house back down.

 

It got Shane and I thinking: If we can keep the heat to a minimum at the back of the house, it should be a lot easier to keep the rest of the house cool. The easiest, most cost-effective solution was for us to erect blinds around the edge of the back veranda. They do not block out the light entirely, but the light colour helps reflect the sunlight, the fabric allows for airflow, and the blinds themselves provide ample shade.

 

The seasons have been warmer than average all year; it has barely rained at all since the end of winter, humidity is low and every few days we are cursed with a burst of heat and northerly winds that have the potential to make things very uncomfortable, very quick. The blinds have been up for just over a fortnight, and already they are proving far more effective than we could have hoped. This past week we even remarked that it was quite chilly indoors.

 

But then again, it isn't summer just yet. It shall be interesting to see what difference these blinds make to the conditions on the inside of the house when summer is at her peak.

 

 

How do you combat the summer heat?

What tested and tried methods can you recommend for keeping a house cool?

Ostara

 

Today is the spring equinox in Australia, that time of year when light and dark are in equal measure. From here on in, however, the days will become longer than the nights as we progress into summer.

 

It is gloriously sunny, possibly a little too warm today. It may be the time for spring but there are certainly many signs of summer about the place: Clear blue skies, dry ground, bees, bugs and FLIES. On the days when it's not windy (that's just September in the Ranges, I'm afraid), the days are what many would consider to be rather perfect. It's a shame that spring is such a short season here: No sooner have we emerged from our winter snug than it is time to retreat back indoors for summer hibernation...

 

But I'll dwell on that another day.

Right now I just want to be out in the garden, enjoying the sunshine.