hot and cold

I don't mind the heat but I need it to be somewhat cool overnight (lower than 20C) to be able to sleep. By the time Monday came I was exhausted from 3 nights with very little, not very good sleep. I was very excited to see that the forecast for today was that it wasn't even going to get to 20C during the day (and that it was only going to be like that for 1 day). I took Wombat for an extra long walk in the wind and rain then huddled inside most of the rest of the day letting the wind cool down our still pretty warm house. I'm cold now. I'm ready for the heat again. It's supposed to go down to 13C overnight tonight (that seems really cold to me) but then be in the mid-20s tomorrow. One cold day is just enough for me.

winter

Winter has arrived- almost a month early. We turned on the heat for the first time last weekend. Yesterday morning I got out of bed and was FREEZING (it was not even 7am). I figured I'd warm up in a few minutes once I got moving (like I usually do) but could not warm up. I finally looked at the thermostat to see that it was only 5C inside our house. Once the heat was on I warmed up quickly (and then had to spend 2 1/2 hours outside in the cold at work first thing). Today actually felt colder outside first thing at work (at least we were inside by the time the rain came). One of my co-workers set the home page on the computers to a weather page that also shows the "feels like" temperature. She then watched it throughout the afternoon and gave us updates in the room every half hour (it was "feels like" 4C at one point then it started warming up again. I think it was about feels like 6 or 7C last time I looked). I'm really not ready for winter to come (although I don't think I'll ever be ready for it). I did manage to convince Zac that we need an electric blanket this morning though (I've been trying for a while but he's always been against it but I talked to a co-worker about it yesterday and how much she's been in love with hers for the past 15 years). I need it mainly to pre-warm the bed and then keep me warm until Zac comes to bed. I don't think I actually produce my own body heat- even with flannel sheets, 2 doonas and a Mexican blanket I'm still cold most nights in winter.

rain

We had a LOT of rain last night and this morning. So much rain that it's off the graph and over the next graph. If you look at the chart to the left, rainfall is the bottom graph. It goes back to 0mm at 9am each day. Overnight we had 47.2mm of rain. The graph only goes to 20mm so the maximum is way above the top of the graph. Look where I put the red star. That's where 47mm is (close up below). I'm pretty sure that I was taught you can't just do that with a graph (put your figures on a totally different graph cuz that's where your graph needs to end).

I was very glad that the huge downpours we had this morning were on and off. It stopped just in time for me to leave to work and get there on time. Just as I arrived and moved my bike under cover another downpour started. One of the office staff had a similar experience on the bus-- it was pouring while she was on the bus and then it stopped when she got off to get on the tram. I should have taken Wombat to the creek this afternoon to see how full the creek is with all the water running off into it.

A bit of downpour (fortunately it kept stopping just before the growing puddle reached the door each time):

melbourne's weird weather

click to see a larger version of the image.
we've had a pretty mild (and wet) summer so far this year. today it's suddenly jumped to the high 30s (supposed to hit 40C this arvo) with possible thunder storms later on. for the past 5 or 6 years new years eve has been quite warm even when the rest of the week has been cooler. really weird how it's always so warm for the night where a lot of people have plans to be outdoors (although last year i think the rain started before midnite and the lightning was more impressive than the fireworks that we watched from our friends second floor bedroom window). i like the hot new year's eve weather (but hoping the storms hold off til early morning). tomorrow is supposed to go back to being just mildly warm again.

rain. and more rain.

somewhere under all that rain is melbourne and 128km of it's surrounds. so much for the great spring weather we've had most of the past 2 weeks. zac and i did have plans to spend our friday off doing something fun. i kinda just wanna curl up on the couch with movies and food now (and zac's still in bed).

no longer exciting

i used to get excited every time we had a grey, rainy, "vancouver-like" day in melbourne. i'm over it now. i just want some sun. our poor dog is curled up in bed and probably hasn't moved from a couple minutes after zac left her this morning (she's lucky today--we've been banning her from the bedroom lately when we aren't with her because she tore up a few sheets with her claws while "fluffing" our bed into a little nest). i wish i could just curl up with her for the rest of the afternoon.

freezing

the temperature doesn't look too bad on that graph but that's cuz that graph doesn't show the freezing cold wind chill. for some reason the melbourne radar doesn't show the wind chill anymore but both the essondon and tullamarine airports show the wind chill being between 0-1.5 C so it is actually freezing outside (and has been for 2 days now). i rode home from work at 1pm and my ears were frozen in the 5 minute ride (i didn't think i'd need my headband over my ears in the middle of the day). i tried to take the dog for a quick walk, didn't wear gloves and my hands were frozen. me and the dog are spending the rest of the day cuddled in the lounge room with the heater on. can't wait to get up to queensland in a few days!

4 seasons

the overnite low was 13C. the low for today was 8C (just before 11am). it's now 12.6C (at 12:45pm). the rain and wind that came with that temperature drop was amazing. we didn't go outside with the children this morning cuz of that. now it's blue sky and sunny. why can't melbourne weather make up it's mind?

cold

it's 6C out right now. it's supposed to get to 20C today. i'll believe it when it happens. for some reason the weather people keep putting the day's high about 2 degrees above what it actually gets to. they've been doing it for the last couple weeks. why do they get my hopes up? why don't they just put the high at 2C lower and then we'll all be surprised when it gets warmer than predicted. at least even if it gets to 18C today, that's reasonably warm if i stay in the sun.

4 seasons

this morning it was warm- unusually warm for autumn. i went to work wearing sandals and a light jumper over a t-shirt. it was 23C when i came home for lunch. mid afternoon the sky got REALLY dark. cold wind started blowing in the windows at work. i rode home in the pouring rain (and if i hadn't decided to leave work 10 minutes early i probably would have missed the huge downpour and just got a little damp in misty rain). i also didn't bring a rain jacket (just a wind breaker) even knowing it would probably be raining when i came home from work-- i figured maybe if i didn't prepare, it wouldn't happen (i should know things don't work like that). melbourne is a 4-seasons-in-one-day sort of place but it hasn't happened much the last couple years. i always forget that it will happen and i need to prepare for every kind of weather almost every day.

getting towards winter

the day after i arrived home melbourne ended it's 123 day streak of temperatures reaching over 20C. i'm pretty sure i brought the cold, greyness back from canada with me. of course now people back home are going on about the sunshine and warm weather (i got SOAKED the day before i left).
i will have canada photos up in a bit-- still sorting through the 300 or so photos.

102

102: that's how many days melbourne has had in a row that are 20C or higher (every day since something like dec. 9) and so far it looks will continue for at least another week or more (hopefully a few weeks--with some rainfall as well--i like temperatures over 20C).

autumn

autumn has been weird. it's been hot and humid, it's been cool and wet. we've had a LOT of rain. We didn't even realize how bad the storm was on saturday until the next morning when we saw these photos and videos in the age. we were at a wedding. after the ceremony we went out to take photos and it was just hot and humid. the wedding party went off for more photos while we all went into a covered area (and an air conditioned room). we could see VERY dark clouds coming. jay was on lea's iphone looking at the rain radar (a band of red was coming thru melbourne) and saying that the news site he looked at said one of the worst storms was coming thru. the rain came. we stood in the air conditioned reception room and watched as it made a water feature against a window while it fell. we didn't really notice any hail. some family had gone off during the afternoon tea and when the came back they said there was some pretty big hail and the rain was bad. we didn't think much of it. when we were coming home, lites were out on the other side of the creek (street lites and homes) and we just thought that was kind of weird. after looking at the photos of the rain and hail now it all makes sense (there were also strong winds). it was kinda crazy how much rain we still got over the next couple days. i'm sure we have to have beaten some kind of record for melbourne for rain so far in march. the garden is loving it (my pile of laundry waiting for a dry day to be washed, is not).

the rain

i just came across this photo in the age's photo gallery.

(photo by Zengming Huang)

i wish i'd gone down to the creek yesterday afternoon (i didn't even think of it until this morning).

in with a bang

after about 5 days of heat and humidity and warm nites the cool change and the rain arrived this afternoon. just as i was finishing work (and we were outside with all the children) i thought i heard thunder. it sounded like thunder but it just kept rolling over and over (like a plane but more of a thunder noise). both me and one of my co-workers stood staring at the sky for lightning. when we were sure it was thunder i decided it would be good if i got out quick and got home before the storm was right over us. i walked into the office to say goodbye to the office people and the director asked me if i was ready-- i completely forgot about my after work meeting with her today (she's a new director and she had arranged personal meetings with each staff member to discuss our goals and needs for the year). i figured if my meeting did actually go for the extra hour i was getting paid for i would miss the storm but i knew my meetings never go very long (and there were only a couple little things i needed to talk to her about). 25 minutes later i was out the door (and my poor co-workers that were still working with children were then dealing with settling 20 or so wet children back inside the room with a flood happening just outside the door). i had soooo much fun riding home thru the heavy rain. the kerbs were all flooded and there were some huge puddles around. i got to holden st and the entire street was under water (the water level went over the footpath). i got home soaked and grabbed the dog right away and made her go for a walk with me in the rain (she wasn't too impressed but she went). we've now had almost 14mm of rain (my garden will be very happy) this afternoon. i'm glad it's going to be slightly cooler the next few days (in the low/mid 20s) and hopefully a lot less humid. i'm over being sticky and sweaty all day (melbourne is supposed to be one of the few places in australia that isn't super humid in summer).

ugh

it hasn't been below 30C since sometime yesterday morning. they're now saying its supposed to get back up to 40C today before the cool change comes in. i don't think i slept much and its still to hot to sleep. i wet my hair down a couple times during the nite. now my pillow is wet and uncomfortable (it did cool me down a bit though). tomorrow's maximum: 23 (i'll probably freeze in that after this). the dog is coping but you can tell she's uncomfortable. we just keep wetting her down when she seems too uncomfortable and reminding her to keep drinking.

up and down

it got to 38.4C today (and that would have been right about the time we walked up to get coffee). i did say to zac when we were about 200m from our house on the walk home that the breeze suddenly felt a bit "cool" (meaning the breeze didn't feel hotter than the sun). it dropped pretty quickly to a pleasant 29C and now it feels cold to me when i tried to sit outside still in my singlet (tank top) but apparently its 21C. the house still feels hot though. mostly cuz our house is stupid and the lounge room only has 1 window that opens in it(and it's less than 3m away from another house so there's not much air blowing in through it). tomorrow is supposed to be just reasonably hot (33C) and then we're gonna get over 40C on monday. i think i prefer this to freezing in canada though.

the glow before the storm

i took this photo the other evening not long before some good thunderstorms hit. that is pretty much the colour of the sky and everything else (it took a while to actually get the right colours on the camera, i had to play with the white balance and metering a bit). everything was just really yellow for a long time and then as evening started, the storms arrived. i didn't bother taking photos of the storm but i sat just inside the laundry door watching the lightning and listening to the thunder for a long time until the rain actually started to fall, hitting our corrugated iron roof and drowning out the thunder. we also had good lightning storms new years eve and right through into the new year (we were upstairs at our friends place watching the fireworks in the city about 10km away and as i walked back downstairs a big flash of lightning flashed outside the window i was passing-- it was much more impressive than the fireworks).

2 great ideas

i've been going through a lot of coriander (cilantro) lately (mostly for salsa). the problem is that i'm not growing it in my garden right now and it cost about 2.50 for a bunch (i think-- i don't pay too much attention but i just know every time i grab it i think i could get a whole punnet of seedlings for not much more or a packet of seeds for probably less). i do stick it in a cup of water in the fridge and it seems to last a week or more but i still seem to end up putting some in the bokashi bucket from every bunch (i was freezing some but now i just have a bunch of little baggies of freezer burnt coriander because you can only really use it in cooked dishes when frozen and i don't cook with it often). its too hot to try to plant it in the garden now so i figured i'll just have to pay the price for fresh but i walked into aldi's and found this today:

its hard to tell from the photo but its a bunch of coriander planted in a little pot so it'll probably keep a lot longer than the cut stuff-- and it was only $3! i've got it in the fridge (with water in the orange tupperware container under it) right now because it's 34C but on cooler days i'll keep it in a nice light spot.
the other great invention is the bread maker. not only cuz i can make bread with very little effort (although occasionally i like to do it by hand and in the oven) but i can make bread on 34C days and not add to the heat in the house by having the oven on for hours. next project i have to get going while it's nice and hot is a batch of alcoholic ginger beer (i just gotta remember where we got the coopers ginger beer home brewing syrup cuz they didn't even carry it in the large home brew section at the huge beer shop in yarragon).

hot

way too hot for 8am:

we did actually sleep somewhat well. i soaked our sheet on the bed in water. unfortunately i couldn't get it wring out very well so it was a little too wet but it kept us cool (and everything is completely dry now).