Another heat wave

Image courtesy of weatherzone.com.au

It's been pretty hot in Armidale this week! Today was the height of the heat with 34 degrees Celsius (roughly 93 Fahrenheit). Naturally, it's not just here--it's hot all over Australia (sans Tasmania of course.) We're usually pretty lucky up here in the Northern Tablelands and get to avoid most of the hot weather (and even when it's hot during the day, a hot night is pretty uncommon. Three cheers for an arid climate!) I'm also very glad we're not in Port Hedland. (41C = ~105F. Too hot!) Or on the coast, where it would also be humid.

While 34 is not actually that hot in the grand scheme of things (especially in this dry area without any humidity), people in Armidale do find it a bit unusual. Out and about running some errands this morning, I overheard more conversations about this hot weather than what I would expect from the usual 'talkin' bout the weather' small talk.

Image courtesy of weatherzone.com.au

We've had pretty bad luck with market Sundays weather this entire summer. So of course, this weekend (as there is a market) is no different. Although it's not necessarily a poor forecast, Sunday doesn't look like quite as nice a day as we would like. (Maybe not quite like today but we'd like it to be hot!) The forecast predicts an all-day high of below 80F with 50% chance of rain, but hopefully it won't rain until the afternoon.

One thing for sure: one of the nice things about hot, sunny weather is that the laundry outside sure dries pretty quickly! The sun is incredibly intense. It was one of those summer days where I felt like I was going to get a sunburn just from hanging up the wash. (I did not.) But one sure can accumulate a tan just from doing laundry!

Even though some of the leaves are turning, yup, it's still summer here.

Still green: our pistachio tree holds onto summer longer than the rest
in our neighborhood.

Snow Day

Second day of snow.  Today the New England Highway was
closed from Glen Innes to Bendemeer (170km)

It was cold enough overnight for the snow to stick to the grass.

Gray day of first-rate 'wintery mix'

Winter wonderland.. (or something like that.)

We've heard a couple people say it was going to snow this weekend, but didn't really believe it until we saw it this morning.  It's just after 10am now and it's all melted, of course.  Today's forecast for the tablelands calls for 60% showers west of the ranges and snow possible above 800m, and it's currently around 1.5° Celsius.  It'll be a good day for some cocoa.

Snow on the Berlingo.  It didn't stick to the ground or plants, but cars,
rubbish bins, and fences had a little accumulation.

The forecast called for .1mm per hour - which ended up to be pretty accurate.

Through the light snow, blue skies could be seen to the southwest.

Almost (but not quite) winter

It's officially (but not officially) winter now; in Australia folks say the seasons change over on the 1st of the month rather than waiting for the solstice or the equinox.  An Australian told me it's a holdover from the convict era, when they would change their uniforms on the first day of the season and therefore needed a set date that wouldn't vary from year-to-year.  I'm not sure if this is true or not, but we have winter on June 1st, spring beginning on September 1st, summer starts on December 1st, and autumn rolls around on March 1st.

It sure feels like winter enough in Armidale, it doesn't get a whole lot colder than -6° C/21° F around here, which is what it was yesterday night.  We never would have guessed that our house in an Australian winter would be just as cold (if not colder) as our house in Idaho during the winter!  I hope you're all enjoying appropriate June weather in the northern hemisphere!

Frost in the front yard.

The narcissus didn't like the frost and wilted completely.

The iris keep their northern hemisphere calendar and
started blooming about a month ago.

The outdoor faucet drips a little bit sometimes and made
an ice stalagmite.

Springtime in the New England Tablelands

Looking across the valley toward South Hill

After ten months of winter, spring has finally arrived!  (It's nearly official, though many Australians consider September 1st to be the first day of spring.)  The wattles and cherry trees are still blooming--Armidale has so many cherry trees, and of course wattles are everywhere so it's a lovely town for spring blossoms.  Every once in a while you see a magnolia tree in someone's front yard in full bloom, and there are daffodils and narcissus, the flowering bushes that look like red plum blossoms (whatever it is, the wattlebirds love them.)  The one in our yard is still going strong because it doesn't get much sun, and there are little white violets growing beneath it with a couple dandelions.  We've really enjoyed watching the wattlebird hop around the branches as it feeds on the nectar and chasing away the parrots when they get too close.

The red wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata), a type of honeyeater

Wintertime Springtime

It's still as cool as ever (actually it's been even colder lately, with lows at around -4!) but it's starting to feel like spring.  The camellias began to bloom--very, very slowly at first, but steadily more and more blossoms are opening.  Meanwhile, the red bush in front of the house is still slowly, slowly blooming (I love how it looks just like the hanafuda February/plum cards at the right angle), the little narcissus is still hanging on (it didn't look too good after the snow, but it bounced back), and the iris continue to bloom (as they have since May).  Around town, more and more shrubs are beginning to blossom: there's some small flowering trees on Brown Street that look like ornamental cherries.  (I'll have to go by with the camera sometime and take a picture.)  So, yeah: beginning to feel a bit like spring.  I'm ready!

Camellias outside the bedroom window, which would be pretty and nice if we
actually used that room for living instead of as a closet.

If you look closely you can see there are lots and lots of buds.
I hope the camellias flower for a long time.

Flowers by our front (which is actually side) door

Little white narcissus below the kitchen window
(don't know what that other bush is.)

The spindly branches with the buds and blossoms are really beautiful
(but it's difficult to take a good picture, either the neighbor's houses or the street is in the view, apologies.)
(You can tell that it's the weekend/Reid's home.)

This guy's still stuck in autumn though.

Rainbow.. bright

Yesterday there was the brightest rainbow I think I have ever seen. I left Saumarez Homestead in the afternoon and it immediately began to sprinkle (much to my chagrin). The sprinkle turned into full-on rain, but the downpour stopped when I reached the sealed road at the airport.  The clouds rolled away, the sun came out... and the sky began to shine.

The rainbow stayed with me the rest of the way home.  It may have been a cold and wet winter afternoon, but it was one of the best bike rides ever.  Somewhat fortuitously, I think, Reid left work early and saw it on his drive from Uralla as well.  He agreed: a first-class rainbow.  (Good enough to even blog about.)

Snow in July

Rather unexpectedly, it snowed this morning.  The sun came out, it clouded up and snowed some more, repeat.  (The flowers outside did not seem too happy about this change in the weather.)

It also hailed earlier in the week, which apparently is colloquially called "sago snow" due to the fact that it looks like the seeds of the sago palm, but the hail seems much less interesting than actual snow in Australia (outside the Snowy Mountains and Tasmania of course).

Today, the second snowfall accumulated more than the first and the third combined, but everything evaporated pretty much instantaneously when the sun came out.  It's been a bit fresh* these past couple days, but it looks like it's going to be warm next week!

*Fresh is also a new weather term for us.  I don't know if I ever used this or heard it in American English. In addition to general temperatures, it also seems to be used to describe winds that specifically are somewhat more brisk than moderate.

I do not really know what "snowfalls clearing" is supposed to mean, exactly.

I took a picture of the blowing snow on our street but as to be expected, the snow itself is nearly impossible to see it looks like just another dreary day in Armidale NSW.  Because I feel like my blog posts are boring without a picture, here is a picture of the weather forecast instead.  Yes, that's right, we're looking forward to "warm" weather with highs in the teens (upper 50s Fahrenheit.)  Enjoy your summer!

First day of winter; partly cloudy with occasional rain.

It's been a pretty cold week here in Armidale! Perhaps only fitting for the winter solstice. July on average is just a little bit colder than June, so we're not in the clear yet--but at least the days will start getting longer again, and we'll be getting more sun on the clothesline in the backyard.  It's really, really nice that we can still line-dry our clothes in the middle of winter.. some days, at least.  Not today: it's another rainy Saturday; cloudy now, but according to the forecast it won't last long and we're due for some more showers.  It seems like since mid-May, every Saturday has been a combination of rainy, cloudy and damp cold.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

It's kind of funny, who would have thought that we'd move to Australia and find our house colder in the morning than it was in Idaho. There is no insulation in the house so when we get up on zero-degree mornings (Celsius (of course, it doesn't get that cold)), it seems to be around 5° in here (41° F).  Though it's hard to tell... our thermometer broke and we haven't bought a replacement.  Missing our kotatsu; wearing layers of coats and hats as usual.  Some things never change.

The zero insulation is turning into a little bit of a problem, though; the main room ceiling is dripping from the condensation in the colder mornings and the mold is beginning to escalate out of control. We'll see if the realtors take care of it for us, otherwise we'll have to buy a ladder.

Courtesy of Weatherzone

Despite being the shortest day of the year, it's really not that bad: as you can see, sunrise is at 6:50am and sunset at 5:00pm.  Latitude-wise, we're the same distance from the equator as Houston, Texas.  Longitude-wise, we're the same distance from the Prime meridian as the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska.  (No one ever says that, do they.)

Anyway, enjoy your summer, you Northern Hemispherers.  We'll think of you during our Christmas in July festivities and our tropical winter vacation in August.

Also, this is completely unrelated, but on Tuesday someone said to me genuinely "Good on you, kid", except of course it sounded more like "G'danya, ked", which I found tremendously endearing.

May 2nd, late autumn.

The weather's been cooling down a bit and is beginning to really feel like autumn.  Not exactly equivalent to a Midwestern November, but at least early October.  The temperature change seems to have come in full force all of a sudden, and this whole weeks has been cool and getting colder.  Lows below freezing projected for Sunday and Monday, already.  But it only feels like already because it's May and not November.

Except for all the autumn colors, I guess it could feel like spring.  There are irises blooming in front of our apartment.  It's still not as cold yet as our mid-May wedding last year, but almost.  There are still flowers everywhere, so in a way it feels like both seasons at once.  (Have I said this before?  Am I repeating myself already?)

Looks like autumn in New England.

And yet... the first bloom was waiting for us on Sunday when we returned from Coffs, with more appearing every day.

We went to a little meet-and-greet event that the Armidale-Dumaresq Council put on last night.  It seems that most of those in attendance had moved here from Sydney or other larger areas, though we did meet a man from rural New York who has been here for a few years.  Every day, Reid drives by a little road-side stand selling apple pies on Kentucky Street on his way from work--it's that guy.  Funny how that works out!  We didn't get an exactly straight answer on why he came here, except that it was connected to his church.

According to Wikipedia (ultimate truth, I know), one in four Australians was born in another country, and yet, the Australians we've met generally seem surprised to hear that we came from the States: even asking how difficult it was to immigrate on more than one occasion.  I wonder if it's a lower percentage of foreign immigrants in general out here in sheep country, or just ones from the US.  I'm sure most of the immigrants to the continent land in the bigger areas, especially Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.

It seems like it must be obvious we're not from Australia even before we open our mouths to give ourselves away.  Still, we've had a couple instances with Australians being genuinely surprised about us being from the States rather than from somewhere else.  I suppose it's good that we don't always fit the bill for the stereotypical American from an international standpoint.  Someone also asked Reid if he was Canadian when he met him--Reid joked he wasn't sure if that should be a compliment or an insult.  (Sorry Canada!)

Bought a bike for $20 from the Tips Shop, which is just a euphemism for the dump.

Speaking of Canada (sort of): I got a Fijian nickel in my change last week, which made me wonder if Fiji (and possibly surrounding islands) are like the Canada of Australia, their money slowly trickling back and forth the way Canadian quarters and pennies tend to do.  We also got an offer in the mail to buy a ten-dollar commemorative coin for Kiribati.  I'll pass... probably not going to Kiribati any time soon.

I love how the money here is a rainbow.