Further anent our execrable climate: earlier in the month we had a heat wave. Longest and hottest April heat wave since settlement, hottest April day in Australia since records have been kept. No rain. Dust storms. A major bushfire within a couple of miles of my house. Preparing to evacuate. Too hot to sleep. You get the picture, I'm sure.
On Friday the day started like a perfect autumn day: temps in the mid twenties, light breezes, a few fluffy clouds. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief, thinking we might finally get some decent autumn weather. The fire was under control, so I went off to a 1.30 pm medical appointment in good spirits. I was at the doctor's for about an hour and a half. In that time the wind rose, there was a heavy dust storm followed by the clouds thickening, and just as I emerged the heavens opened. So we drove back through high winds, slippery roads and enough rain to have some flooding, and in late afternoon I did my usual Friday market preparation and picking of herbs and flowers in bucketing rain and near-freezing temperatures.
Saturday morning dawned with hail, sleet and a warning to sheep graziers of weather dangerous to their livestock. Thank goodness vintage is nearly over, and has been a fairly decent one in our area, and fruit harvest is nearly done. Our market proceeded (fortunately in the show hall rather than outside) in temperatures cold enough that I was sitting at my stall wrapped in a blanket, and I'm reasonably cold-hardy. I felt really sorry for the folk at the big equestrian event elsewhere in the showgrounds; at least the goat show which was also happening was in the sheep sheds and so under cover!
Now it's mid-afternoon Sunday, and I am alternating outside work in the intervals between rain squalls with frantically trying to salvage what I can of my storm-damaged fruit: there will be a lot of jam and fruit leather this year! At least the rain may save my young trees, many of which were withering despite being watered. It may also bring on the mushrooms in the forest, which will be good. So far I have only lost one tree to the storm, a young silky-oak which snapped at the base and came down across the driveway, and a few branches off some of the bigger trees. We've had winds of about 60k/hour, with gusts to 100k/hour, so I'm not surprised trees are coming down.
At least we had about six hours of actual autumn!
