Harbingers

Look at this for a forecast:

WEDNESDAY
MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE 70S TO LOWER 80S. WEST
WINDS 5 TO 10 MPH.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT
MOSTLY CLEAR IN THE EVENING THEN BECOMING
MOSTLY CLOUDY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF RAIN AFTER MIDNIGHT. LOWS IN THE
50S. WEST WINDS 5 TO 10 MPH. CHANCE OF RAIN 20 PERCENT.

THURSDAY
MOSTLY CLOUDY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF RAIN. HIGHS IN THE
70S. SOUTHWEST WINDS AROUND 5 MPH
BECOMING WEST 10 TO 15 MPH IN
THE AFTERNOON. CHANCE OF RAIN 20 PERCENT.

THURSDAY NIGHT
PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS IN THE 40S TO UPPER 50S.

FRIDAY AND FRIDAY NIGHT
MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN. HIGHS
IN THE 60S TO UPPER 70S. LOWS IN THE 40S TO UPPER 50S.

SATURDAY
PARTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF SHOWERS. HIGHS IN THE 70S.

There's TWO words in there that I have not seen for ages:

a) cloudy, and
b) RAIN! (albeit a slight chance of)

Golly, the season might be changing. It is nearly October after all.

Then on the shop hop, I saw this tree in a car park at Los Altos. It was a little enthusiastic about changing I reckon.


Enjoy your weather and spring or autumn wherever you are!

Feeling wistful

I was reading Crazy Aunt Purl today and her comments about Tennessee having real seasons made me sorta wistful. Where I come from, we have winter (should be "cold" (50sF, 13C) and wet/damp but has just been mostly cold and vaguely miserable for the last 10 or so years), spring (should be four seasons in one day, still living up to its reputation), summer (often blasted hot, rarely miserably cold, ie only 20-25C, generally balmy nights, the odd thunderstorm, cool changes every week or 10 days) and autumn (dry start then cool crisp mornings with sunny, warm days).

We've been here in SJ for over 9 months now. We arrived on 30 December. So far we've had the weird winter here - relatively cool days (warm compared to Canada though!), once every two or three weeks it RAINS for three or so days, non-stop. Then it clears up for a week or two with heartbreakingly blue skies. It rained and rained and rained for Stitches West, only stopping in the last afternoon. I am told that is usual. The rain events wound down over March, the last shower was in April, and we had lots of blue skies. LOTS and LOTS of blue skies. I waited impatiently for it to start to warm up. It stayed around 15-20C for AGES, or so it felt.

At the end of May, it suddenly heated up. We had a few days of nearly 100F, which killed off my pea plants (and they had been bearing so well!). Then it cooled off some, thank heavens cos I was afraid I'd have three or four months of 100F temps. We had one lot of showers in late June. The locals freaked out cos it doesn't usually happen. The clouds brought dry thunderstorms to many areas, triggering a heap of wildfires and things got pretty dire for a while. The whole Bay area was smoked out. Can't imagine what it was like for those living in the areas/fighting the fires...

Since then the weather has been up and down. Mostly 80sF (high 200s/low30s C), but for a while in August I wondered if fall had come early cos the temps were around 25C for a few weeks and there were CLOUDS in the sky. Yep, white fluffy things. I'd almost forgotten what they look like.

One thing that often keeps temps bearable here is the sea breeze. The north end of the Bay calls it the Delta. I call it the sea breeze. It kicks in most days, bringing cool air from the Bay. It also means that most evenings are surprisingly cool - even if it is 38C out in the arvo, one must take a cardi or jacket out cos it will probably be quite cool in the evening, especially if the sea breeze keeps blowing.

This week? HOT! 100F or nearly. Gack. So hot that I am not getting stuff done. I've been warned that September and October can be rather warm. The average temps for SJ say 82F and 76F (28 and 25C). I'd like to know what the standard deviation on those figures is. 25C sounds marvellous but not if it is 15 one day and 35 the next... Time will tell!

Flat as a pancake

Ah what is it about this time of year that gets me down? The rapidly shortening days? The coolth that greets me some days (that I suspect is giving me cold-induced asthma?).

I love the cool mornings and warm, sunny afternoons we are getting here at the moment on most days. I love the green grass and coloured leaves, mostly yellow, and the crunchy leaves on the ground - I deliberately ride over them or walk on them (hope there are no doggy offerings hidden though!). But I despise the cold mornings that remain cold dreary days, especially when I have to go out riding to get something we need or something that I have to get done or whatever. I have to muffle myself right up, but if I do I can't get enough air and if I don't, I still can't get enough air as my airways close in response to the "cold." When I say cold, I mean under 10C or something like 50F I guess. Yes I am a wusster. Thank heavens we aren't moving further north cos I think a real winter would kill me. My nose would turn that dainty shade of alcoholic purple when it goes numb, my fingers would go numb, my toes, I'd end up with frostbite and hypothermia! See what happens to people when they grow up in a very mild climate? They turn into wussters!

As for the blues, well what is going on there? Daylight is a certain influence. I am so much a long days person, and a person who appreciates warmth. Stress - my goodness the stress of HP doing the dirty on us, the uncertainty of our futures, the realisation of having to move again, trying to get everything organised AGAIN for another tilt at ANOTHER visa, ANOTHER move.... Apparently all the Canadian consulates are booked out. Sigh.

Having a limited budget is also very vexing. I'm in a consumer's paradise and I can't consume anywhere near as much as I would like! It's my birthday at the end of the week and I know I won't be getting anywhere near as much as Nathan did for his. I used to get spoiled on my birthday and at Christmas. Now that I am Big, and Mum's long gone, that doesn't happen any more. So I spoil Nathan and since birthdays are not important to him, he doesn't spoil me.

Nathan's parents are going to be here for Christmas, which I am looking forward to, and the last couple of days they are here we'll be on the move, almost literally. The removals company will be taking all our stuff just after Christmas. Hey, parents in law, pull up some carpet! Hope you like your mattress reallly firm and no bedding! Sorry we don't have anything to cook with or eat off of - we'll just have to do takeaway for breakfast lunch and dinner! (and poison me!)

I think I am particularly grumpy about the fact we finally started settling in, making connections and now? Bang, gone. We don't really have that many friends here yet anyway but that is another stress cos we really have each other to moan at, with a couple of others like our neighbours occasionally getting a whinge from us.

So I am grumpy, whingy, whiney, moany and generally peeved at present. I am crafting stuff madly - spinning yarn for a November project, knitting socks madly, trying to work out how to make a rug out of felted sweaters, dyeing yarn - and avoiding anything that really needs to be done (like vacuuming the floor, but without a vacuum cleaner it is hard to do the floors. I've been sweeping the carpet instead). Why won't Mr Dyson swoop down and give me a lovely vacuum cleaner that actually is able to pick my long blonde hairs off the floor and not lose suction when it is halfway full (one borrowed vacuum cleaner with a name that is used by Brits for vacuuming had to be totally empty for the accessories to work. How suckful, ahem, is that?).

Heh. Having a good moan is most enjoyable. I feel better already! Hope it lasts. Gods, I'd best get outside - the forecast from Wednesday onwards is grey and dreary. Today it is bright and sunny and over 20C! Oh I'd best get the chairs finished - we've only had these two bar chairs for like two months now and I still haven't sanded them back and put the estapol finish on them...

September Sunset

Ah, the days are getting shorter now - a week past equinox, though we still have lots of daylight to lose. It's been an interesting week - bright sunny and clear for a goodly lot of it.

When I looked up out of our study on Thursday (we have these clerestory windows that make our place look three stories high), I saw this:


Glorious blue sky and a tinge of autumn at the top of the tree.
(you are lucky - I removed the ENORMOUS bird poo splattered down the window. I get to see it every time cos there is NO way I am finding a ladder that long just to clean it off)

Then enough cloud shows up to make sunset fabulous.




Can you tell that sunset is my favourite part of the day? Sunrise is good too, at least in winter, but really sunrise is hard to cope with for most of the year. I'm awake for most sunsets :-)

A home amongst the treetops

I sat in our study today, our study that is home to boxes, mostly empty boxes, some "green" shopping bags, a hammer and one lonely bookcase.

The study is light and bright and airy, even though it faces north. It looks out into the trees. It was very pleasing to me. At the moment the trees are green but soon enough they will change colour and the leaves will fall.

Whilst I look forward to seeing what Fall is like (we have Autumn in Australia, and autumn means some trees lose their leaves but only the imported ones, 99% of the Australian species keep their leaves, so the colour is not exactly spectacular), I fear months of no leaves on trees and gacky pathetic grass that has lost its colour after being snowed on.

So I guess I had best enjoy the study whilst I can, whilst it looks out onto dancing leaves and sparkles of sunlight (maybe I should move the computer up there out of the loungeroom!). Same with the ever-drawing-in evenings - get out there and enjoy them, quick, quick, like the ephemeral insects I saw dancing in the late afternoon sun today. It really feels like summer is done for now and we are heading for cooler weather. The evenings are cool now, not uncomfortable, just below 20 degrees C. Crickets call incessantly for mates, a sound which I like. It is gentle and soothing, unlike the shrilling of cicadas. The days start cool and warm up - we will still occasionally get temps in the 90sF, but I am hoping we won't get such oppressive heat as we have had recently. A thunderstorm every afternoon is exciting but tedious when you have to ride home on a bike in it....

On the monsoon season, 2

Umm, what happened to the rain and humidity? Suddenly we are back to temps averaging 33-35 (mid 90s) and hot bright sun! Hot hot hot! Plus the irrigation channels have been closed down so there is a lot less water flowing around town.

In six months I will be dreaming of days like today as my poor little (ahem) Aussie butt freezes off. But at the moment? Nope! I'd like say 25 C (mid 70s). That would be very pleasant indeed!