It’s supposed to be spring here in the southern states of Australia but despite that, we have just had very strong winds (over 120kmh) blow through and its not over yet. It’s 10 degrees (Centigrade) today and it will be 4 degrees overnight. There are trees down all over the place and power is a luxury again. Unfortunately, an elderly man was playing golf at the course in the village over the weekend and was hit by a falling branch, but luckily not seriously hurt. Thankfully, despite the rain, there is no flooding close by, although all of the dams (man made lakes) on the farms are full and the water in the nearby creek is rushing through the bush.
The best thing about this kind of weather is the justification for lighting the fire and we are really lucky to have a great fireplace in our 174 year old house. Mind you, even in the summer we have cranked up the air-conditioning and lit the fire just to sit around it with a nice glass of red wine.
The dogs love lying in front of the fire as well and we sometimes have to step around them in order to get to the sofa! That’s ‘Stampy’ – a cyclone on four legs and she just loves the fire. She is a cross between a fox terrier, a Chihuahua and something really really naughty. Just in case you were wondering about the Reindeer in the right hand side of the picture; we usually have Christmas in July – which for us is the depths of winter.
The picture below was taken by our eldest daughter and shows the Christmas table decorations.
We lived in the tropics for twenty years and loved being warm, but eventually, we missed the seasons. Foolishly, we decided to move back to somewhere more temperate and for some strange reason, we pitched up in a place with all four seasons, in a day sometimes…. That means that we will have the fire blazing and the electric blanket will be ‘on’ tonight. There’s also a pretty good chance that a nice local Shiraz will be opened!
Fire… Good.
Infront of said fire, good to be home!