Well, here we are, one week into summer in the southern hemisphere and we have already had every type of weather extreme. On Monday it was a boiling 36c and we were all in shorts and eating icypoles. Now it is day six and we are all back to woolly jackets and freezing our butts off. The driving rain didn’t stop all day yesterday and we spent last night shivering in the cold.
No, I didn’t light the fire, it’s December for gods sake! We should have been barbequeing! Maybe I should get some more wood in though, there was even a snow report on the news yesterday morning…
Broccoli flowers and a tiny Hover Fly. On the right there is an even tinier…. hmmm… I don’t know what that other flier is!
That 36 degrees is far too hot for me. I’m not a hot weather lover at all and looking at the insects in the garden I’m probably not the only one.
I want to do a bit of gardening, stripping out a bed and putting in some new stuff, but I am too lazy have been leaving that particular bit of garden to go crazy for the insects.
I love a nice neat garden but at the same time I love it when things start running to seed and are covered in flowers. The bees and other pollinators love it even more and flock in for their share.
On Monday, when clearly the world was about to combust, I dragged myself outside to check if the chooks had enough fresh water.
I stepped off the back verandah into a shady patch of ground (the edges of which I hadn’t been overly attentive to with the mower, frogs live there) to find every weed blade of grass abuzz with Hover flies.
Usually these guys find a place to hover where they can hold position for as long as possible. Clearly the ability to do that is hugely attractive to the females of their species.
It just so happens that on this particular hot day the places they all wanted to hover were all in the shade. Rather than maintaining a polite distance from each other as they normally do, there were so many (hundreds!) they were all pretending that it was ok to be standing around on the same blade of grass waiting for a turn in the limited airspace.
I felt sorry for the poor fried things and, after finding the well-watered chooks happy now their muddy yard had turned back into a dust bath, I hunted down a shallow dish and filled it with water and old fish tank rocks (so they could walk about and drink, but not die a splashy death) so the hover flies could have a drink too.
I placed it near them and wondered if they would all share, or if I had just accidentally given one of the Hover Flies the best slice of hoverable real estate ever, and that the females would be flocking in for this bloke with the nice new swimming pool…..
After a few minutes I noticed that a some of them had managed drift in the right direction and snatch a drink. I guessed that over time any of them who wanted to would find a way to hover in the right spot, so I retired back to the interior and my own cold drink!
Thirsty hoverflies.
Buried words and Bushwa. 
I’m not sure, as is usual with your critters, that I’ve ever sense a hover fly… I will pay more attention now. Leaving the saucer with rocks out for them was a great idea, and the bees appreciate it too. Ridiculous weather. Even a mild 23 deg here today has a coolish edge to it. Last weekend at TA we went from a deluge of rain Friday afternoon to Saturday to four seasons in one day, flanny shirt off on off on on Sunday and hot on Monday when I wanted to garden.
We like a middling tidy-messy garden. We usually have a big tidy up, then leave it to revert to messy. Weeds are a matter of perspective…
Friday’s rain ensured all our bird and bee bath/saucers (which have rock islands) were overflowing, and made the weeding a little easier. One of big trees hummed with native bees all weekend, so I must put a layer of rocks/marbles in one of our water saucers as well.
You probably have seen them before, they are like really skinny bees, perhaps those humming trees were full of hoverflies!
We are like you, with lots of critter drinking holes around the garden. It is nice to know the bugs don’t have to travel away to get a decent drink isn’t it, it keeps them and their friends hanging around. 🙂
Your weather seems o have gone mad while this year ours reverted to how I used to remember it. A good Summer, a cool Autumn and a cold Winter. Yesterday though we were in the grip of fierce gales but all seems quiet on the Western front this morning. Snow is a strong possibility over the weekend which could make for a pretty Christmas if it lasts.
I hope things improve for you there and your Summer settles in ( without being too hot for you or the hover flies).
xxx Huge Hugs to you all xxx
I hope it doesn’t get too hot too. Expecting cool summers is really a vain hope though, I think I might need to move to Antarctica….. 😉
Cold and dark here now!
As I write this on Monday it is completely overcast and pouring with rain and I am rugged up on the couch. The weekend was bright, warm and sunny and I got a ton of washing done…. Up and down, cold and hot…. Did you post some of the cold and dark by express parcel?
My mate lives in Queensland and misses the winter – so sorry yes!
Sounds like you’ve had some mixed weather, hope your summer settles down soon. 36 degrees is way too hot for me as well, luckily it never gets that hot here in UK, well not much over 30 anyway. Yesterday was very stormy here in UK, gale force winds, and a storm surge down the coast. Fortunately I live on a hill, but other areas have been flooded nearby, including my town centre and cinema. So I hope this is the last of the stormy weather. Yes, its lovely to see the garden coming into flower, now its winter here, I really miss sitting out in my garden and reading in the early evening. So nice just to be able to sit outside and relax. How nice that you put the dish of water out for the horseflies, Im sure they were very happy buzzing around for a drink. Enjoy your weekend.
Thank you, we did! 🙂
It is very nice to sit outside and enjoy the garden, I’m glad to hear you are safe from any flooding though. Will the flooding dry up just in time for the winter snow to blanket everything?
Thank you, yes the clean up is well underway. It affected the high street mostly, and local cinema, hopefully it wont take too long to clear up, before things turn really cold. I like on a hill, so I was ok. However the nearby park is still flooded in places.
I thought that was a joke, about Summer, until I saw it was you. I’ve just managed to pack my hedgehog off to hibernation, for a second time. If he carried on much longer I’d have had to wrap him in tinsel to make him appropriately festive.
p.s. You get Doctor Who on Boxing Day about 12 hours after we do.
Yay! The kids will be thrilled with that slightly belated Xmas present. Now if only there will be more Doctor Who episodes playing in the new year we will be very happy. 🙂
Same crazy weather here, in South Oz, too 🙄
We get your weather a day or so later so I always look to see what you have been suffering through each day so we know what to expect!
Personally, I can’t get enough of the hot weather. Mrs. Cotton Boll and I are complete opposites in that regard. She likes the cooler months, when it’s easier for her to get out and run, while I love the late spring, summer and early fall, when it’s as hot as blue blazes. The one advantage to winter in my neck of the woods is that all the foliage dies off, making it easier to find and explore dilapidated structures, abandoned graveyards, etc.
I’m totally with Mrs CB, I’ll package up my share of the heat and send it if to you if you like. 😉
The falling leaves would definitely make the landscape more interesting at times. Pretty much all of our native trees are evergreens so the only times we get bare trees are in gardens where European trees have been planted.
We should start a club or society or something – Summer Haters United perhaps? The thought of 3 more months of scorchers depresses me more than I can say. My one consolation is that I didn’t let the Clark pool fill with algae this winter so cooling off won’t be such a chore.
You really are a softie, you know that? -hugs-
“….better than a beach in your own back yard”, especially when it isn’t green and slimy! 😉
If only we had enough flat ground to sacrifice some for a pool of our own! Think of me while you are bobbing about on a lilo with an umbrella drink. 😀
lmao! My Clark pool is only about 5 metres long so can’t fit too many lilos in it, but I’ll definitely think of you once the weather warms up again!
I’ll try and remember to take a pic of the pool to show how little space you can get away with. It /is/ ugly though but those 18,000 litres will help feed my roof sprinklers if all hell breaks loose so I’ve learned to love it.
The kids and I would love a pool but I just stepped out the biggest bit of flat clear lawn we have. Ten steps each way….. If we had a pool I’d almost be able to jump out if the kitchen window right into it! 😀
Of course if it weren’t for that cursed gravity thing sloshing the water out we could have an Olympic sized pool running down the hill. Alternatively, if we made a cut in the hill to put a pool up there it would have one side deep enough for a diving tower! 😉
lmao! I’d want a pic of that diving tower!
The front of my block has a fairly gentle slop. Then there’s the site cut where the house sits and the pool is literally 1 metre from the back deck. I can see into it from the kitchen window. Unfortunately due to pool safety regulations we can’t get to the pool from the deck. Maybe one day I’ll be able to afford to put pool fencing around the deck, with a gate, and steps leading down…
If it’s any consolation, those of us located on the other half of the world are heading into winter. It’s dark and cold at five in the afternoon and snow is predicted.
The grass is always greener — or warmer or sunnier or lighter — on the other side of the fence.
We all complain don’t we? If every day was utterly perfect we would be complaining about the way it never changed! 😀
I’ll be sending some warm thoughts your way, I’m not sure you could stand the whinging you would hear from me if it was cold enough to actually snow here, our version of cold is pretty weak! 😉