Same from South Australia, where it is uncommonly dark and desolate and cold even for Winter Solstice. So strange after the extremes of heat and drought we have suffered lately, but I guess we need to be bracing ourselves for more extreme extremes all over. From today the days get longer, so there will be more light, but from the way the plants, birds, insects and other animals are acting I reckon it is going to get even colder, and that soon. I need to get more firewood in!
Would that I lived closer to you - my husband runs a community firewood project. All summer he rousts up volunteers to help him do work on fallen trees and such for people for free, and puts it through the wood splitter. The volunteers get dibs on cubes of firewood, we get firewood, anyone else in the community at large who asks (surprisingly few do) gets firewood, and the rest goes onto the lawn for all comers. You would likely fall into the 'anyone who asks' category.
It may be midwinter, but in Auckland the narcissusses (narcissi?) and daffodils are poking up, and I have my first azalea flower. Beetroots, onions, garlic and parsnips are sprouting in the winter garden (I only get to check its progress on the weekends, as I'm never home in the light during the week).
