Good weather for ducks.

We have been having all kinds of weather lately cold, wet, warm, dry…. it’s been all over the place. It hasn’t been too good for drying my washing but it has been good for my plants, and, judging by the activity in the garden and the amount of spiderweb I have walked through in the last few weeks, it has clearly been good weather for those who live outdoors.

Well, nearly everyone who lives outside. We had a few days when the heavy rain never let up, only the strength varied, keeping away the birds who usually arrive for their daily feed. We figured they had found somewhere comfortable and dry to wait it out. Our assumptions were proven wrong when a small group turned up, soaked and hungry…

One look at their bedraggled feathers and it became clear that they had just been hiding in a tree waiting for it to stop, and that no food deliveries were being made to them!

I made the mistake of going out in the rain to put sunflower seeds out on the back verandah for them and this guy didn’t even let me put it down. As I stretched my arm out he jumped onto my wrist and scoffed the handful before any of the others got a chance! I felt so sorry for the poor soggy thing I stayed out in the rain until he was finished. 😀

Wet and hungry…

The heat is over! Hurrah!

Ok, I might be getting a bit over enthusiastic there, I am sure it will be back soon enough…

Nevertheless, this weekend was actually cold and wet. Real wet, not a slight shower that got us all excited and then left before the plants got a drink, and real cold as well. I actually had to go and dig out some shoes from under the bed and search for some socks which was a bit of a shock!

I have been out this morning and enjoying the wet garden with my camera and found these raindrops on a fallen leaf, the sun shining brightly through them.

I thought they looked like a crowd of little planets. 😀

I love the rain!

Yippee for the rain!

Lately in Victoria we, and especially our gardens, have been suffering from the heat. We have had a long stretch of hot days and frankly we are sick of it!

The last few days have seen February set a heat record in Melbourne for the most days over 30-degrees (86°F) in the month. Apparently the average is about seven days above 30° in the month but until today we were up to about 14. Blah.

Last night a change was forecast but we failed to get too excited as we have been let down a few too many times in the past. The sky might darken and the thunder rolls but the humidity rises instead of the rain falling. Last night though it did actually cool down, and this morning I woke to the sounds of falling rain. Real rain! What a relief!

I think you can imagine which side of this 1910 cartoon my garden and I fall on 😀

Worker 1 Jan 1910 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70876686

Not sunny and warm anymore. Bugger.

This is one of the songs that we will be listening to in the car today, Rain, by Dragon from back in 1983. You Aussies (and New Zealanders, since Dragon are adopted Aussies) are probably going to be saying “Awwww, Dragon? I loved them!”

This song is very appropriate as we have now gone from the lovely sunny days of outback New South Wales to the cold and rainy days of Victoria. Damn. We can tell that we are on our winding way home now and we are not happy about it.

Outrunning the rain!

Are only Lego fans allowed to live here?

When we were driving through Melbourne today we went past this new-ish set of buildings across the road from Melbourne General Cemetery and I had to post a picture. Each time we go past the kids and I laugh as it looks as though they were built with Lego.

As always, when we are going on holiday it rains. We were driving through torrential rain at times today and trying to get further north to get past the worst of it!

It does make for some suitably dramatic skies though 🙂

Show us your weather!

Over the last few months Courtenay Bluebird over at Bluebird Blvd and I have been trading weather stories as we both live in very different places and are experiencing the opposite extremes of weather at the same time.*

Today we have a beautiful clear blue sky and are absolutely freezing here in the Yarra Valley, 11°c at 12.30 in the afternoon as I type, and the mountains I can see across the valley likely have snow under the trees.

The weather in Victoria being what it is though, at any moment it could start raining and not stop for days, bringing on flooding. Giant hail could be on its way, damaging winds could bring down trees, lightning could start a fire…..

At the other end of the spectrum, poor Bluebird is suffering through the Texas heat and apparently not enjoying it at all, I really feel for her. In a few months time it will be summer here and it will be my turn to mope around the house wishing for some sort of extreme weather anomaly to bring a blizzard in to break up the heat.

There is no point complaining about the weather in Melbourne as the climate is along the lines of ‘don’t like the weather? Just wait a minute’. We often have four seasons in a 10 minute period, never mind ‘in one day’!

I remember going to an outdoor concert many years ago and coming home a complete mess, a huge dust storm blew up, choking us, only for the drowning rain to turn it into a mud bath. Soon after, the blazing sun came out and we ended up with sunburn, turning to mild hypothermia by the evening, naturally we had a great time…

Since we have both been weather obsessed lately we though we would include you all in it too and have a blog carnival, so come on! Join in! We would love you to do a post about the weather you are experiencing, it can be writing, photography, art, anything! We really want to see what all you people around the world come up with, and if everyone is as weather obsessed as we are.

If you do a blog post submit your link to bluebirdblvd@att.net.  Please include “Show Us Your Weather!” in the subject line and Bluey will include it in a sticky post on her blog from the 1st to the 7th of August 2012 to share it with everyone. Have a look here for her Show us your Weather invitation page for more details.

Here is my photographic contribution to the carnival. Over the weekend the Man and I were in the city, a rare event. Yes, I packed an umbrella. It was a beautiful day and rained intermittently. This picture is taken from Southbank, the newly trendy part of Melbourne, looking across the Yarra River towards the rapidly disappearing buildings of the main CBD.

It is appropriately moody in black and white through the sheeting rain. If you could see behind me it would be to a crowd of the well-dressed cowering from the rain under a verandah for the five minutes of the downpour. I just had time to take a few pictures before the rain cleared, the sun was back, and we all continued on our way.

This picture is making me cold just looking at it, although I didn’t even need a jacket that day. Aaahhh, Melbourne, I love your changeability!

Rain at Southbank, Melbourne.

*If you would like to see exactly what the weather I am having at home right now is have a look at Britannia Creek Weather Station, a live weather station a short distance from my house.

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Thanks to those of you who participated in the blog carnival.

Sparks in shadow with “Storm”

The Why About This with “The View”

Old New or True with “A Tempest Between Four Walls”

Meeka with her haiku

Aubrey’s Blog with a beautiful piece of writing entitled “Windy”

Moseblossom with her wonderful illustration “Rain”

and of course Bluey with her essay “Delusion, by Degrees” explaining what those hot months of summer can do to a South Texan mind….