Well, someone had to do it.
:)
…………………..
I’m going to try to get in early this year.
All the best for the Festive Season …. for you, and yours!
AussieDJ said:
Well, someone had to do it.:)
…………………..
I’m going to try to get in early this year.
All the best for the Festive Season …. for you, and yours!
Ta and back at you.
Here are the ducklings at three weeks old. They are starting to grow their first true feathers.
Picked my first two tomatoes yesterday.
Have eaten all my peachcots. yummy. No fruit fly so far this season. Plumcots are looking good for Christmas.
roughbarked said:
Picked my first two tomatoes yesterday.Have eaten all my peachcots. yummy. No fruit fly so far this season. Plumcots are looking good for Christmas.
I have picked some green apricots in the hope of them being mature enough to ripen. The cockatoos had found them and if I left them there I wouldn’t even get a look in.
bluegreen said:
roughbarked said:
Picked my first two tomatoes yesterday.Have eaten all my peachcots. yummy. No fruit fly so far this season. Plumcots are looking good for Christmas.
I have picked some green apricots in the hope of them being mature enough to ripen. The cockatoos had found them and if I left them there I wouldn’t even get a look in.
Interestingly, which may matter to bird counters. Though I often get mobs of white winged choughs travelling through, I have never seen Apostle birds in my yard before today. The pair of big silky oaks I planted are huge now and provide shade for resting and recuperating birds. There was a bakers dozen apostle birds huddling together there today while three or four butcherbirds were also too hot to bother them, sharing the same shade.
bluegreen said:
roughbarked said:
Picked my first two tomatoes yesterday.Have eaten all my peachcots. yummy. No fruit fly so far this season. Plumcots are looking good for Christmas.
I have picked some green apricots in the hope of them being mature enough to ripen. The cockatoos had found them and if I left them there I wouldn’t even get a look in.
Apricots at Casterton aren’t big enough to even consider that yet. They are putting on some size, but with virtually no rain, I suspect I might end up with none to eat. I lose them to the parrots too. But not the cockies. Usually lorikeets or rosellas.
buffy said:
bluegreen said:
roughbarked said:
Picked my first two tomatoes yesterday.Have eaten all my peachcots. yummy. No fruit fly so far this season. Plumcots are looking good for Christmas.
I have picked some green apricots in the hope of them being mature enough to ripen. The cockatoos had found them and if I left them there I wouldn’t even get a look in.
Apricots at Casterton aren’t big enough to even consider that yet. They are putting on some size, but with virtually no rain, I suspect I might end up with none to eat. I lose them to the parrots too. But not the cockies. Usually lorikeets or rosellas.
Fruit here is mainly eaten by honeyeaters. Mallee ringnecked parrots do love nibbliing on stone fruit before it is quite ripe. They also love ripe persimmon.
roughbarked said:
They also love ripe persimmon.
Who doesn’t? lol!
I earned my first shower in the NEW SHOWER this morning after a hot and sticky weekend. I’m thinking that I don’t want to wait much longer to hunt down this elusive part for my old aircon and maybe while I am getting new stuff I should get a new aircon too. In the words of the infamous Lucky1, “I want my winter!”
I just plonked the last of last season’s Rocombale garlic into the soil. Completely the wrong time to plant, but we’ll see what happens.
Right then. I planted out the capsicums (Italian Fryers and minis) and some beetroot seedlings. Popped in some seed for beans and corn. Reseeded for carrots and parsnips, as the snails got the last lot as they sprouted. There is blue snail food around this lot. And I dug some potatoes. King Edwards and Nicolas. Guess what we are having for tea tonight.
Then it got too hot out there, so we watched the latest episode of The Musketeers. The costuming is stunning.
Part for airconditioner cannot be found. New one going in 22nd December. Will I survive? The past few days have been miserable with the heat. Raining today which is a relief.
bluegreen said:
Part for airconditioner cannot be found. New one going in 22nd December. Will I survive? The past few days have been miserable with the heat. Raining today which is a relief.
Which part are you looking for?
roughbarked said:
bluegreen said:
Part for airconditioner cannot be found. New one going in 22nd December. Will I survive? The past few days have been miserable with the heat. Raining today which is a relief.
Which part are you looking for?
The control (circuit) board for an NEC, who don’t make airconditioners any more from what I can gather. The fellow has enquired at a number of places and the consistent answer was, “too old.” It has been suggested by someone else that it is at an age where parts are breaking down and even if one was found then something else may go wrong and I will have trouble finding parts again. I was prepared for this outcome when I called them in the first place so I am not too bothered about it other than having to do without for a while. Heat knocks me around something awful.
bluegreen said:
roughbarked said:
bluegreen said:
Part for airconditioner cannot be found. New one going in 22nd December. Will I survive? The past few days have been miserable with the heat. Raining today which is a relief.
Which part are you looking for?
The control (circuit) board for an NEC, who don’t make airconditioners any more from what I can gather. The fellow has enquired at a number of places and the consistent answer was, “too old.” It has been suggested by someone else that it is at an age where parts are breaking down and even if one was found then something else may go wrong and I will have trouble finding parts again. I was prepared for this outcome when I called them in the first place so I am not too bothered about it other than having to do without for a while. Heat knocks me around something awful.
Now you see why people like me are pissed off that they took away our supermarket shopping rights at the local tip.
Time to start tying up tomatoes. They are big enough now to start flopping over. Some of the plants even have flowers on them. This is extremely advanced for this time of year here. Partly because I’ve been a bit more organized in the propagation department, partly because of the early heat this year.
Does Pomelo visit here anymore? I see there was some excitement in her town over night…
buffy said:
I just plonked the last of last season’s Rocombale garlic into the soil. Completely the wrong time to plant, but we’ll see what happens.
And it has pretty much all shot up. I wonder if it will just go to seed at this time of year though.
buffy said:
buffy said:I just plonked the last of last season’s Rocombale garlic into the soil. Completely the wrong time to plant, but we’ll see what happens.
And it has pretty much all shot up. I wonder if it will just go to seed at this time of year though.
I’m thinking of trying to resurrect my leeks.
Getting very hot already here. Some wind, but not ferocious. I choose not to watch my plants wilting out there. I have put on the very low pressure sprinkler in the shade up under the walnut for the benefit of the local birds.
We have a few cicadas singing this year. I can’t recall cicadas for quite a while. Info here, if anyone wants to refresh their memory:
http://australianmuseum.net.au/cicadas-superfamily-cicadoidea
Dammit. We just had a light shower of rain, which has really done in the baby lettuces…with 41 degrees and wind and then a sprinkling of water…..paper. They might revive, if I’m lucky and they get a good water tonight. I can hear some thunder.
buffy said:
Dammit. We just had a light shower of rain, which has really done in the baby lettuces…with 41 degrees and wind and then a sprinkling of water…..paper. They might revive, if I’m lucky and they get a good water tonight. I can hear some thunder.
Australia is a tough place for gardeners. I’ve always had cicadas. They are the Black Knights. On my travels elsewhere have noticed other types. If there are different types they may have different cycles.
Survived yesterday, just got today to get through until the change.
bluegreen said:
Survived yesterday, just got today to get through until the change.
It is a really awful day out there.
bluegreen said:
Survived yesterday, just got today to get through until the change.
A long-awaited cool change has arrived in South Australia after much of the state sizzled in over 40 degree Celsius heat for four consecutive days.
“At midnight it was still 30 degrees, and since then we’ve had a south-westerly wind change push through and the temperatures have slowly dropped to around about 20 degrees,” he said.
Mr Anolack said the change was moving with a band of rain, bringing some relief to the agricultural areas.
“Rainfall figures have generally been a few millimetres,” he said.
“Some places have had a bit more … Wudinna has had seven millimetres and thunderstorm activity up in the far north-west corner, up near Ernabella, has recorded 22 millimetres.”
From the abc, justin.
It is coming. http://www.essentialenergy.com.au/content/stormtracker
Power is back on after it went out at 2pm for 5 1/4 hours.
My garden is pathetically grateful for the 2mm rain that fell this afternoon. I had done some watering this morning, so the rain water soaked in quite nicely. And the baby lettuces have a new lease of life.
I’ve put the pumpkin seedlings in here, rather than in Casterton. I wanted to put them over there where there is more room, but obviously this is not going to be a gentle Summer. And the last of my tomato seedlings went in this evening. They are planted close together along a row and will be tied up with baling twine. Like this:
But I’ve jammed them in close for the last lot. They are Rouge de Marmande, Amish Paste, a couple of ferals (I think they might be Ananas Noir offspring), a couple of leftover Brown Berry and Tigerella. I’m basically just going to see how they go in an intensive lot. I have others more carefully separated. If this lot works, I’m hoping to have enough to make quite a bit more tomato sauce this year. And pizza sauce, as I have my own garlic hanging in the kitchen.
bluegreen said:
Power is back on after it went out at 2pm for 5 1/4 hours.
We went out at 4.30 on Friday and it came back on at 10.00pm. Then yesterday, when there was a fire just out of town here, we went out again for a couple of hours. Very pleased I am that we have a generator and a fire radio listening set. We were fine. Fire to the East of town, wind from the West. Could have been a worse situation if the fire had been on the other side of town.
I’m getting rain now. 6 mm so far.
roughbarked said:
I’m getting rain now. 6 mm so far.
New aircon is installed and running :)
The temporary portable one I borrowed left me with a wet carpet because the drain hose was leaking :(
Ananas Noir tomato has started to set fruit. Yum. Well, yum at some time in the not too distant future, anyway.
:)
buffy said:
Ananas Noir tomato has started to set fruit. Yum. Well, yum at some time in the not too distant future, anyway.
:)
Have been eating tomatoes for a few weeks. More than I can get through so I’ll be making some sauce over the chrissie period.
Good morning and merry Christmas to those who do that sort of thing. I have dug some potatoes for our lunch and found about a dozen not frizzled lettuce leaves for our tea tonight. Getting hot already and the wind is up. The local fire brigade quick fill pump is stationed at the spring. They don’t do that usually unless something is actually going on. And it’s not. So someone is worried about this heat and wind.
Merry Christmas right back at you. :)
Doesn’t look like I’m going to get rain today. Or not much, anyway. Pathetic map at link…..
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR142.loop.shtml#skip
buffy said:
Doesn’t look like I’m going to get rain today. Or not much, anyway. Pathetic map at link…..
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR142.loop.shtml#skip
It is still on the way.. http://www.essentialenergy.com.au/content/stormtracker
Good morning. Although my youngest daughter was here yesterday, our Christmas is happening today when my eldest arrives with her family. Beautiful, heavenly rain here today.
bluegreen said:
Happy chilluns. :)
bluegreen said:
Cuties :)
My grandkids love my ‘nannas lollies’, blueberries picked fresh :)
Yikes I haven’t been in here for ages. Busy picking preserving and dehydrating all sorts of garden goodies. Jam and chutney jars line the pantry shelves.
I’ve a presto canner now..first up will be green beans.
Yesty I dried mushrooms and ground half to make my own vege stock powder with chillies and herbs, basil, parsley, celery leaves, rosemary and dried carrots, to name a few. Add some rock salt and ground black pepper and it’s lovely.
I’ve button squash, zucchinis and cucumbers everywhere. Got the first red tomato this morning :)
We got rain. Real rain. 20mm of rain overnight from Christmas Day into Boxing Day. Which meant we went to Melbourne for my family get together. If it hadn’t cooled down that was going to be very seriously reconsidered.
buffy said:
We got rain. Real rain. 20mm of rain overnight from Christmas Day into Boxing Day. Which meant we went to Melbourne for my family get together. If it hadn’t cooled down that was going to be very seriously reconsidered.
we had 23 mm here. Welcome indeed.
I’m getting quite a few tomatoes, these are the sweetest;
roughbarked said:
buffy said:We got rain. Real rain. 20mm of rain overnight from Christmas Day into Boxing Day. Which meant we went to Melbourne for my family get together. If it hadn’t cooled down that was going to be very seriously reconsidered.
we had 23 mm here. Welcome indeed.
I’m getting quite a few tomatoes, these are the sweetest;
They look healthy and yummy. 28mm here :)
I don’t like sweet tomatoes, hence I’ve never been keen on yellow ones. I like bitey tomatoes.
I drove over to Casterton this morning to belt in the nails on the ramp the patients walk up. In the hot weather the boards change and push the nails up. I needed to do it before my next visit there in about three weeks, so I did it today while I thought about it and before the next bout of really hot weather in a couple of days.
I picked every apricot that didn’t have a bird peck and had even a semblance of colour to it. I’m hoping some of them will finish their ripening off the tree. It was take the risk, or accept that the birds would probably get them before me.
buffy said:
I drove over to Casterton this morning to belt in the nails on the ramp the patients walk up. In the hot weather the boards change and push the nails up. I needed to do it before my next visit there in about three weeks, so I did it today while I thought about it and before the next bout of really hot weather in a couple of days.
I picked every apricot that didn’t have a bird peck and had even a semblance of colour to it. I’m hoping some of them will finish their ripening off the tree. It was take the risk, or accept that the birds would probably get them before me.
The wood dries out. Get larger diameter nails and use those.
Apricots picked green-ish often don’t ripen so well but it is the perfect time to stew them or make leather out of them.
I think I might do a morning water as well as an evening one tomorrow. Forecast 40 degrees. And today our humidity dropped under 10%, so we can expect that again. I’m hoping for only mild winds.
Wind Speed
Wind Direction 20km/h
NNE 9km/h
NNE 13km/h
N 7km/h
SE 13km/h
N 13km/h
NE 27km/h
ENE 21km/h
ENE 26km/h
ENE 23km/h
ESE 25km/h
ENE 22km/h
ENE 20km/h
NE 14km/h
NE
Relative Humidity 31% 13% 30% 12% 35% 21% 42% 27% 59% 43% 65% 52% 64% 47%
Griffith | Narrandera | Hillston | Lake Cargelligo | West Wyalong Riverina 28-day & 12-month rainfall forecast
Griffith Sun & Moon Times
Thursday Next Occurrence
First Light Sunrise Sunset Last Light Moon Phase moon set moon rise last quarter new moon first quarter full moon
first light
05:37 EDT sunrise
06:06 EDT sunset
20:31 EDT last light
21:00 EDT moon
set
Thu 11:28 EDT rise
Fri 00:14 EDT moon
Sat
Jan 2 moon
Sun
Jan 10 moon
Sun
Jan 17 moon
Sun
Jan 24
Griffith Ap Past 5 Days
Day Minimum Maximum Rainfall
Wed, Dec 30 16.2°C 35°C 0.0mm
Tue, Dec 29 13.9°C 32.4°C 0.0mm
Mon, Dec 28 11.7°C 28.6°C 0.0mm
Sun, Dec 27 11.5°C 25.7°C 11.2mm
Sat, Dec 26 19.6°C 23.6°C 12.2mm
Griffith Ap 3 month history
Griffith Ap Year To Date
Average rainfall to Dec 397.5mm 73.4 day(s)
Total for 2015 435.2mm 89 day(s)
Total to this day 2014 345.6mm 77 day(s)
Wettest day 24.2mm Jun 17
Lowest temperature -2.0°C Jun 4
Highest temperature 42.3°C Dec 20
Griffith Ap Almanac
December minimum temperature
Lowest this month 9.5°C 3rd
Lowest on record 4.2°C 4th 1978
Average this month 17.5°C +2.1°C
Long-term average 15.4°C
December maximum temperature
Highest this month 42.3°C 20th
Highest on record 44.0°C 31st 2005
Average this month 32.7°C +1.8°C
Long-term average 30.9°C
December rainfall
Wettest this month 12.2mm 26th
Total this month 39.8mm 5 day(s)
Long-term average 32.0mm 5.0 day(s)
Wettest on record 127.8mm 1992
Driest on record 0.0mm 1967
Full Griffith Ap Climatology
Forecast Current Conditions Synoptic Chart Satellite Radar
I did some watering. Well, actually, the rainwave sprinkler did it while I did some crunches and pushups and things. And then it did a different bit while I walked and jogged in the park. And then it did another bit while we rode the bikes around the perimeter of town. Who says you can’t multitask?
I also started a bit of digging and stone sifting (never ending here on the side of the scoria cone) but when it hit 28 in the shade and I couldn’t see for the sweat dripping off me, I decided that was enough.