-
New Year
It’s a new year or at least it is in this blog. I’ve been too silent lately but I’m hoping to change that. I still have a post to write about going to Brisbane in November so that might be one of the next posts I write.
We’re just about at the end of summer now with autumn officially starting on March 1st. Of course it’s still pretty warm here. Unlike much of Australia, we didn’t have so many nasty fires around the Perth area. There was a big one in December but nothing of major note since then. We’ve been quite lucky in that respect. We did have some really hot weather in early December but temperatures this summer were mostly mild to moderate compared to years past. That makes three summer where it’s not been all that terrible.
What has been harsher is the humidity. When we first got our air conditioning back in 2002 or 2003, it worked really well here as the heat was mostly dry and only a few days in the summer caused it to work poorly for us. It’s an evaporative system which had been typical here but the number of humid days is getting a lot higher and so we end up having an ineffective cooling system. We have other issues with the current system we have so have ideas of changing it in the next year or two. I think it’s quite possible we may switch to a different type of system next time.
This week has been a stormy one and we’ve had a lot of rain over the few days. It started on Monday although we didn’t get rain where we live. I’d been expecting rain so avoided watering plants but then we didn’t get any. I finally watered plants on Tuesday morning and sure enough we had a big amount of rain dumped on us that afternoon. Well I think it was a big amount since I wasn’t home when it happened. It definitely was a dumping where the Scientist and I were. The storm cell seemed to weaken a bit before it got here so I think it was just a lot of rain and storminess but nothing too close.
Today the sun has come back out and it’s mostly big fluffy clouds although it’s still possible we’ll get more rain. After that it’s supposed to be dry for at least a few days.
Oh and the other thing that we’ve had trouble with here are the hot nights. Every night lately has been above 20C which is pretty unusual. especially when the daytime temperatures haven’t been super high.
-
Australia is cold
That’s what the headlines have shown lately. Except it’s not really true because here in Perth we’re having something of a heatwave. Today is the first day of winter and it’s supposed to be 26C today, which is almost tropical for this time of year. But it seems the western part of Australia doesn’t count. I remember this happening a couple months ago when it was hot everywhere else but Perth but the story was the country was hot. Meanwhile we were chilling here…literally.
But, you know, climate change is fake news and all….sigh…
-
Rainy season
Typically the winter is the rainy season here in Perth. I think over half of our rain comes during this time of year. So far this year, though, we’ve had quite a bit of rain through the late summer and autumn. In fact the only month that seems to have been spared was June, which was unseasonably dry this year.
The past few weeks we’ve had rain almost every day. Well, at least a forecast of rain and some drizzle most days. It’s rained so much there are lakes within some of the park lands around here. A couple years ago this was a problem due to blocked sewage drains plus rain. I don’t think the drains are particularly blocked now but the rains have continued.
Last week we had a nasty storm that brought heavy rain and thunder and lightning one morning. I will point out that thunderstorms really aren’t all that common here although they aren’t a rarity either. It’s just a lot less than I used to experience while living in North Carolina during the summer. Anyway, that storm came along and the power went out that morning. The lightning never even hit all that close to us so I am surprised we had an outage. I will also point out that we often go a year or more without a power outage here. Well I guess that was the case when we first moved in here but it’s probably a bit more often now. Still it’s pretty rare. Initially I didn’t realise the power was out. I had woken up and I realised my Apple watch needed a charge so I connected it to the charger. I heard the usual ping sound once it connected. Then I connected my phone to its charger and there was no ping. I thought something had happened to the power outlet (which would have been bad since it was only put in last year). Still nothing. I went out to the living room to try it in a different location. I went to turn on the light and nothing happened. A light bulb went off in my head…lol.
The power was out for about an hour and then all was well, or so I thought. I don’t know whether it was an issue from the start or not, but our router/modem seems to have died soon after the power returned. Died as in it wouldn’t power up at all. After an exchange of a few text messages with the Scientist, I went out in search of a new router/modem. The funny part of this is that we were in the shop a couple days before that and the Scientist had spotted one that he said he planned on getting when we next needed one. The expectation, of course, was this was not going to be any time in the immediate future. So this turned out to be the means of getting that really good one sooner than later. It is a much pricier model than the previous one but does have a few bells and whistles that hopefully will make up for it. Also we had a gift card for a retailer that sells these and I was able to reduce the price by $154, which still left it expensive but less so than it started out to be. The new model has been going pretty well so far. I did have a couple problems connecting my iPad at first, until I connected ot the 5G network instead of the usual one. Since then I’ve not had any issues at all.
Meanwhile, there is still a bit of rain in the forecast but I see a break in precipitation for the coming weekend. I’m looking forward to a bit of clearer weather for a few days as we finish up our winter season here. We did have a lovely sunny day last Thursday but it’s not been very nice since then. And before we know it, we will be in spring and the allergy season should ramp up. I suspect the only reason it hasn’t right now is the rains washing off the pollen.
And on a slightly related note, I heard on the radio today that Australia may be in its worst flu season ever recorded. It has been a terrible winter for flu around here. Almost everyone I know has been struck down at some point. I am still not sure that we had the flu here back in June. Whatever it was was pretty nasty but it didn’t include fever and it didn’t include the usual aches and pains that come with flu usually. That reminds me of something else I heard on the radio today at the same time. There was a discussion of the difference between a cold and flu and the doctor they were talking to would say that if you have to ask that question you probably have never had the flu. That reminded me of my first experience of flu when I was a freshman in college. It was February and pretty much everyone else on my floor of the dorm had had it before I finally succumbed. And yes, it was like nothing I’d ever had before and was quite memorable. What I had this year wasn’t at all like that and yet it was just as awful and probably longer lasting. So my thought it was it could have been a totally different type of flu than I had in the past or it was a random, but nasty, upper respiratory infection. One last thing to take away from the interview today was that it was still a good idea to do a flu vaccination so maybe I will see about doing that.
-
Seasonal confusion
Spring is a time for a lot of back and forth between cool and warm temperatures but we are well into it and it’s still hopping back and forth. Really, it’s been rather warmish this spring so far. We’ve had at least three or four days of temperatures above 30C already and it’s expected it will just worsen. On the weekend the house got really warm and reached a difficult point on Saturday or Sunday evening. We’d been sitting in the living room playing the end of the second Danganrompa game. I was feeling terribly hot and bothered. I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t get true hot flashes but I do get hot and bothered a lot and I think that’s not just related to excess weight I am carrying. Anyway, I thought perhaps it was just me being hormonal or something. But I happened to notice the temperature gauge on the air conditioning panel was showing it was still 24 C in the house, which is pretty warm for evening/night time. It was decided then that we’d open the windows in the house even though that means a lot more pollen getting into the house. Once windows were opened, we put the fan on and it did cool off eventually. And I stopped feeling hot and bothered. :)
Fast forward to yesterday when the temperature had dropped considerably, there were constant strong winds, and precipitation on top of that. It was like going back to autumn. That was bad enough but the night time temperature dropped to practically winter temperatures. The windows are still open but it was really chilly last night and I might have used an extra blanket..
-
Wet, wet, wet
NOTE: This was meant to be posted last week but I didn’t finish it. Too much time has passed so I have posted it as it appeared last.
I seem to recall a group called that here in Australia, possibly a one-hit wonder, or perhaps more than that. I am pretty sure I don’t know any of their other music though.
I will just comment, not complain, that we’ve had rain pretty regularly this month and I am in no rush to send it packing at this point in time. That said, the winter (aka weedy) grass is growing tall throughout our yard and when we do get a new lawnmower, it will be electric. Would be good to have that cut down when it dries out for a day or two. It certainly is nice to have the rain around here and we haven’t even had anything dramatic so far. We have had threats of storms but it’s been pretty benign where we live…although not so great in other areas of the state.
I don’t know if there’s an association of any sort, but we’ve had our power go off twice in a week recently. I know this is pretty common for many areas but here we almost never have anything more than a brownout or the power flickering off for a moment or two. This seems rather a remarkable coincidence and I can’t help wondering the causes of the outages. We probably will never know but it is curious. Only the first outage was after dark so the effects weren’t too troublesome for us.
Last week the Scientist and I marked our 21st wedding anniversary. It was a really nice day and the the stormy weather that had earlier been predicted never eventuated. In fact, it was rather warm that day, and we managed to walk around to some of our favourite places without the need of any extra clothes. We even did  a repeat climb of the DNA tower in King’s Park around sunset. It’s really nice to have our kids now old enough we can go out and do our own thing instead of dragging them along or including them in our plans.
-
Winter grass, cool weather and other stuff
After months of dry weather, we finally got a bit of rain late last month. I was a bit concerned it was going to flood after so much time but we lucked out and it was a fairly steady, and mostly light rain that fell over the course of a day or two. There has been a bit more rainfall since, Â just enough to avoid having to water on our watering days. Tomorrow we are due for a cold front to come through with some heavy rain…will wait and see what happens on that but I don’t mind a rainy day once in a while, even though it will affect a couple things happening. Curiously, the rain must have come at just the right time as we now have winter grass (weed grass) popping up through our yard. It seems to be a lot more widespread for early May than I remember in the past…or maybe we just had that much moisture to start it growing by now.
Similarly, the weather has only recently cooled off much from summer temperatures. It seemed like we went straight from summer to winter within a week or so. None of this gradual seasonal change for us here in Perth. We haven’t closed our windows totally yet but it will likely happen in the next two or three weeks. With the cooler weather, I have noticed joint pain has suddenly ramped up quite a bit and it seems possible I will need to resort to taking some sort of anti-inflammatory medication soon.
After procrastinating about it for months…well, maybe years if you consider it’s been sitting idle for years…I finally got my bicycle into a local shop for repair and service last week. It was a strange thing to be riding after so long but it was a nice strange. That is, it was nice until the wobbles of the bike became evident. Fortunately I had a dual use path to ride on most of the way there so didn’t have the stress of road riding a bike that was not in ideal shape. It seems at least one of the wheels is buckled and it’s not certain what will need to be fixed up to run properly again. In many ways the bike is still in decent shape, at least compared to a lot of other bikes that have sat in sheds for years…it has a bit of rust on the handlebars but much of the main frame is looking okay. Still, it wasn’t a terribly expensive bike even though it wasn’t cheap when bought ten years ago, and if costs to bring it up to speed are too much, I will think seriously about replacing rather than repair.
For the first time ever, I got a flu shot yesterday. I have never felt much need for them in the past but there have been reports that the current flu strains have affected my age group, bringing down even quite healthy individuals. Apparently due to my diabetes diagnosis, I get flu shots for free so I will consider making this an annual thing. Game Fanatic had one last week and Lego Lover gets one tomorrow. He’s obviously not looking forward to this as he doesn’t like needles of any sort. I have gotten some cream from the pharmacy to help numb the area…which it now occurs to me might be a bit tricky since we often have a long wait to see his doctor…I may phone ahead to see if he is running on time or not before heading out.
Our family went to see a movie for the first time in a few years last week. We were all interested in seeing the Lego Movie and had hoped to catch it soon after it started. Both Game Fanatic and I were sick for a couple weeks or more so we delayed it…finally were all well and able to go. And it was really good. There was much to be enjoyed by both adults and kids in the movie and Lego Lover was abuzz for hours after we saw it. I suspect there may be a few new sets being added to his collection soon, which is a bit of a surprise as he’s mostly been buying Transformers toys and the occasional Lego Hero Factory set in the last couple of years.
-
Catching up
I keep procrastinating about writing posts and never get around to them. Maybe I need to make a list of things I want to write and tick them off as I do it.
Life carries on as usual at the lorikeet household. Last week, the Scientist and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. We’d been together a few years before that but this was the official date. It was a very good day, starting with a gym visit and shower before going out to a mid-afternoon meal at Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant here in Perth. This is one of his Italian restaurants and it was absolutely lovely there. The complimentary bread was some of the best I’ve had. The olive oil and balsamic vinegar served with it were just wonderful. I had a pasta dish with prawns and linguine which was quite nice. I only ordered an entree plus a salad on the side…plenty of food for me. We did have a starter of baked mushrooms and the music bread with that was also rather addictive. For dessert I was brave and tried the pannacotta. I’ve tried it many times before and was always disappointed. But I had hope that Jamie’s recipe would work and I was right. Strong vanilla flavors and fresh fruit and sweet and creamy. It’s not part of the usual menu but I hope to have it again. The best part of the meal is that it didn’t cost a small fortune to eat there and was reasonably priced. Not bad for a celebrity chef restaurant in the city. Add to that the great dinner companion and I couldn’t ask for more. The Scientist and I enjoyed a stroll through King’s Park afterwards and probably worked off a few calories from the meal. We climbed the DNA tower, which is two spiral staircases designed to look like DNA. It has a good view at the top and it was sunset so we were both snapping away with our cameras. I made it up and down the stairs without much problem, which was a nice change…funnily enough I had more trouble on some other stairs and steep paths along the way…strange. It’s weird to think it’s been 20 years since our wedding day…sometimes it seems so recent and other times it’s a lifetime ago…
I’ve been out in the garden this week, cutting branches off a tree I want to get rid of. I don’t know how we will get the trunk removed ourselves as it’s very big but I plan to cut as much off as I can. It’s a shame since the tree has been there since we planted our first shrubs…but it was taking up a massive part of the garden and was too big for the yard. We have another one in the front yard but will leave that as it is for now. Aside from many piles of branches, there is a lot more space in the side/backyard than there’s been in years. Little Maromi won’t be able to hide as easily when this is cut down like he does now. I also noticed today it gets so much more sun in that area now. I’m thinking of trying to plant a hibiscus and see what happens…but we may think about a few other plants too.
We’d truly gotten into the chilliness of late autumn/winter this month but the last few days have been a bit warmer and even the nights haven’t been quite so cold. Last week I went outside to hang wet clothes and even with a warm robe and bed socks with shoes I was feeling chilled. A couple nights ago, it felt more like a summer night and the clothes didn’t even draw damp. We’re supposed to get some rain but I haven’t seen much evidence of it so far. I did, however, see a beautiful moonrise on the way back from tai chi. It was hidden behind clouds at first but came into full view by the time we were home. I noticed a little while ago it’s still quite bright although much higher in the sky…no clouds blocking it at the moment so I wonder when this rain is due to happen…
I had more games news to add but it turned out to be so long I will make it into a separate post.
-
Just like that…
it suddenly turned into autumn here, bordering on a bit of early winter. Most of the month we’ve had warm temperatures and have had to run the air conditioner most days. I think Perth set a few records on high temps for April earlier on…last week it was still warm and we were still needing turn on the a/c by midday. Then a couple of days ago, it got cool…so cool that I found myself searching for my bed socks to keep my feet warm at night. There has been none of the gradual shift in seasons this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if we skip right on to winter weather in a couple weeks…although I hope it doesn’t happen like that.
-
I thought it was spring
Supposedly we are well into spring this year but you’d never know by looking outside. Nights have been in the single digits (celsius) several times over the past week, well below the normal temperatures. Tomorrow the forecast is for what is essentially a winter storm with rain, hail, and gusty winds. This isn’t the first storm we’ve had this month either. More importantly, the temperature is nowhere near normal for this time of year. Since it’s going to be so chilly, I plan to make a black bean soup/stew for dinner and get some crusty bread to eat with it.
-
Falling behind
I have been working on a post from my birthday for a few weeks now. It’s not so much that it’s long but I’m trying to include photos and that seems to take a lot of time. I will hopefully have that up in a day or two…maybe within a month of my birthday if I stick to it long enough.
Meanwhile, the year continues to pass by so quickly that it’s hard to imagine we’re near the end of the fourth month already. Despite the passing of the months, the seasons have been a bit more sluggish. We finally saw the beginning of autumn weather a couple weeks ago after a particularly warm start to April. The nights are definitely much cooler now but summer has not left us just yet. Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty warm and it’s going to be hot on Friday, hopefully the last gasp of summer. Then we are due for possible showers over the long weekend. I won’t hold my breath at this possibility as it only leaves room for disappointment. I think it’s quite possible we will be watering our yard well into winter this year.
That said, the Scientist and I are going to an outdoor concert venue on Monday night to see Neil Finn and Paul Kelly perform. We believe it’s more likely to rain then than at any other time. Of course, it could very well rain at the venue but not here at home. It’s located in the Perth hills, which have had considerably more precipitation than we have in recent months. This will be the first time seeing Paul Kelly and a first solo Neil Finn show for us. It’s a special Anzac Day show called Songlines and will also feature Lior And Ben Merito, singer/songwriters from Australia and New Zealand. It should be a special night of  Australian and New Zealand music in the hills overlooking Perth.