Tag: south australia

Joy! Spring is here – summer is on its way!!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Last week of winter. Next week is the official beginning of Spring. Ok, so the split system  A/C was installed at the very end of winter but it will be ok and well run in by the time we start to experience some hot weather – always provided we get some. It would be nice to think that after this wet weather we will get some heat and warmth, then I can have the fun of complaining that it’s too hot.   I have to say that I have not had to say that for a while. Years ago the average temperature was around 42c in mid-summer and climbing up to a hottish 45c, but we have not had weather like that for a while now. We have bursts but not the long hot heat-waves that we used to have when the temperature went above 37c  and forgot to come back down. Global warming – cooler temperatures –  cold with lots of rain -doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

I head off to Adelaide in the morning for a funeral. Adelaide is some 475 Klms from here so it’s about 800 klm round trip for a funeral – but that’s South Australia. However it is not a wasted trip and in the morning I pick up two little Maltese girls and take them to their new homes in Adelaide. I do this for the South Australia Dog Rescue. I think of the poor dogs that are dumped, like these two little girls were and I feel  very sad because it’s quite common in this place. It’s a sad thing when people just dump their dogs at the nearest Vet. Most of them end up in the pound and the not to lucky ones have to be put  to sleep. Sometimes dogs are picked up off the street and although  the pounds advertises for the owners – mostly they never come forward because they just wont pay the $50 fine to get the animal back. They are kept for about ten days then put to sleep, unless the Dog Rescue steps in and takes them out, but for that we need more foster carers and we don’t have them. If we had a) more responsible owners or b) more carers (whilst the SADR finds new homes) we would be a lot better able to cope with the problems.

I have also spent a good part of the week organising a group to participate in a fundraising event for the Local Royal Flying Doctors Support Group.  Only to find that the event is not now going to take place. Nice to know these things.  Oh well – these things happen I suppose.

Support Group

Not with a whimper….

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
The Maltese Terrorist

Winter might be heading off for a holiday but it will not be going quietly. The forecast is for rain and a bit of wild weather.  The trouble with weather like this is that it tends to make a fellow feel homesick – (yes, I come from Scotland) I’ve only been here for 25 years so I’m a relative newcomer. The Refrigeration Engineers are supposed to be coming today to install the new split level air-conditioner system. The current system decided to give up the ghost – or whatever a/c systems do – and die on me.  It was going to cost XX to repair and XX+x to put in a new system. The Insurance Company were not too happy and paid out, but only if we got the new system because the old system is just on the ten years and they are reluctant to insure any system that is more than ten years old. At the moment we are using an electric heater and thus far it cast cost an arm and a leg in power bills.

In my previous post I made mention of  phILOFAXY and posted a photograph of my Scanda.  This will be retired at the end of this year and it you look at the photograph you will see to the left of the Scanda what looks like another Filofax- it is. This is my “Filofax in waiting”   This is the Filofax that will replace my Scanda – Cuban Zip Personal. Out of the picture, to the right, sits a Cuban Zip A5, which stays there and I work between the two.  I think, regardless of what I said the other day, if anyone uses an Organiser of any kind, you should look at phiLIOFAXY because there are some really interesting things, helps and tips on there. Filofax is just not popular  where I am and I am probably  about the only person who uses one, thus there are no supplies in this region and everything  I want has be to brought from the UK or the USA. Unlike the people on the blog, I can’t go down to the local Stationery Shop and I would kill for a WHS ( which I remember with fondness)  People use a diary but not an organiser, so it is possible to pick up any range of diary, from Academic to Household Shopping, but not get inserts for a Filofax. David Jones, in Adelaide used to stock supplies and a range of Filofaxes  but these days their range is very limited and inserts thin on the ground. The photograph above is the Cuban Filofaxes  – the front one being the Personal and the rear one the A5 and yes the Personal is sitting open and flat..

The engineers have arrived and are working on installing the new AC System. At least it’s not raining and even if it were, the AC Unit is under the carport anyway, so they would get some shelter.  I’ve just left them to it as they move in and out of the house. The only good thing about winter is that you can leave the door open and not be invaded by flies while you slowly freeze to death. Have to love  Australian country towns – 20,000 people, 50 million flies.

As you can gather I have not been doing a lot of work in the garden. Tomatoes are coming along nicely  as are my new venture in Purple Carrots. Don’t really know if I like the idea of Purple Carrots but I thought I would give it a try. Parsley seems to have taken over the herb garden, overpowering the Mint and other odds. Just as well I like parsley. Most of the roses are doing well. I think I have lost a few and it’s too late to replace them now. If I were heading off to Adelaide anytime soon, I would most likely still get some to replace the dead ones, but not here.  If you ever hear that the world is coming to an end – come to South Australia; everything takes fifty years to get here.

Slow week.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Likes a nice bed!I have been trying to tackle the weed problem as best as I can at the moment, but with the rain we have been having, it’s not so easy. I did say the other day that they seem to just spring up overnight and the daily dose of rain is not really helping. Oddly enough our weather seems to be  somewhat European at the moment in that  much of the UK is cold and wet. For us here in South Australia we seem to have had a very ordinary summer and an early start to winter with more rain than we generally get at this time of year. But I take heart from the fact that I am not an orphan when it comes to weed problems since the grounds at the church  are starting to show an influx of weeds.

We were invited to a 60th Wedding Anniversary last night and on show was a very elaborate photograph album which contained  letters from : The Governor General,  The Prime Minister,  The State Premier, The State Governor; The Federal MP for the area, the State MP for the area and the Leader of the Federal Opposition – very impressive. And no, there was no letter from the Queen. In this day and age, this is quite an achievement, but then, they are pre-boomers so it’s really not that unusual for that generation and the generation that followed  even although the boomers sometimes get a bad name.

Because it’s cold at night I have been letting the dogs into the laundry earlier than usual. Once they bed down, that’s generally them until about 6:30 am. I give them their breakfast treat and let them out.  They are quite comfortable in their houses and their padded beds and  the houses are under the pergola out of the wind and rain. Actually, I think they are  more comfortable in their houses than in the laundry, but sleeping on a padded bed in the laundry is now a habit and by 10 pm they are generally at the door anyway. We are expecting more rain over the next few days.

All quiet down here!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

New South WalesThe rain continues to pound down in the Eastern States and the north of our State.  The area under water continues to increase but at the moment, despite the chaos, only one person has been killed. . In the north of this state  there may have to be food drops to people and communities cut off. Why such a difference in temperature and weather patterns – South Australia is larger than Texas.  Sorry about that but there you are! At the moment it’s mild here but not as warm as it should be. Something I have been painfully aware of is that we seem to have an almost constant wind. I am surrounded by trees and I spend a morning sweeping up leaves and twigs only for the place to be just as bad the next day. Same when  take the dogs out in the evening – there is always a wind. Summer’s end and I’m wearing a jacket already. Where does all the water from Queensland, the Northern Territory and the top parts of New South Wales and South Australia go and why do we not do floods over here? Most of it rushes down into the Lake Eyre Basin. The Lake Eyre basin is an area larger than France, Germany and Italy combined and for Lake eyre to o overflow would take a miracle of Biblical Proportions – really. However having said that it is believed that the flow from the Mississippi could fill Lake Eyre in about three weeks and about three days for the Amazon.

I realise that none of this has anything to do with my rebuilding the garden but with all the rain last week and the strange weather I have not really been able to do much outside other than attend to the weeds that the rain has allowed to spring up.  But provided it starts to clear up and dry out, I will get back into it again – unless my services are needed and I get called into work.