Seems our long hard winter (just kidding here) has come to an end. After at least a month of temperatures that dipped below zero at night and crawled up to 15 during the day we are finally putting that behind us. Australian is having an unseasonably warm spring and this past weekend was especially hot. Within a matter of days we went from naming our daffodils to drinking cold glasses of lemonade on the deck in our tank tops.
All this summertime in the spring has its drawbacks though. After a dry winter Australia has started early on fire season. New South Wales is dotted with unseasonably warm consequences. The highway into Sydney had to be shut down for a day leaving many stranded on the road waiting for a fire to pass through. Our camping plans were thwarted by the national park going ablaze. It seems our new home needs a different sort of spring jingle. No more 'April showers bring May flowers.' Here we have 'Winter's drier, brings spring fire.' The fire forecast for this coming Summer is dire. I am glad that the country is at least very good at early warning systems and firefighting. I am also solaced by the fact that eucalyptus are a fire tree. While the fires bring destruction to our world, the trees actually depend on fire for regeneration. We also got to drive through a recently burned eucalyptus forest and it was beautiful. It looked nothing like when other trees burn; The eucalyptus withstand the heat much better and the leaves turn a shimmery gold colour. So, as our more Northerly friends slowly start to light up their homes to prepare for the holiday season Australia may have more spectacular plans.
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| One of those moments where everything seems perfect |
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| Soaking up the sun |
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| Kiting at the Arboretum |
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| The Jerrabomberra wetlands, where Aurora is learning to bike |
I was testing out "August showers bring September flowers" over here but perhaps "August winds, bring flying bins" is more apt.
ReplyDeleteReally do that many bins fly around? Sounds just as dangerous as fires.
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