Saturday 14 November 2009

There is no end in sight

to the unseasonable heat wave. Despite temperatures of more than 35'C forecast for another week the government has not eased watering restrictions either. They could have done this on a temporary basis. It probably would have saved a lot of water. People would be more likely to obey the rules if the watering restrictions were adequate for keeping a garden alive. As it is we now have a situation where more than half the population openly flout the restrictions - and the other half do not have gardens.
We have rainwater tanks. We have multiple rainwater tanks. My father has heavily mulched the things that matter in an effort to keep things alive and adds targetted buckets of rainwater to things. He is up by six in the mornings. As he is not a particularly early riser this is something of a penance for him. He says it is his task to keep things watered and so does it early in the morning and in the evening. It needs both if things are to survive. Tomorrow is our official watering day. I will stand out there for more than an hour watering our small patch of lawn with the dribble of water we are allowed. The lawn is an air conditioner of sorts. It is degrees cooler standing on the lawn first thing in the morning.
We also have the glory vine growing down one side of the house. We do not know how the vine came to be there. We did not plant it. Somehow it just appeared. It took root. It expanded. We never water it but it seems to survive. We have trained it so that it forms a cooler green canopy over the windows in summer. It helps to cut down on the amount we need to use our ageing reverse cycle air conditioning unit.
The Weather Bureau's spokesman was interviewed last night. He says that the heatwave has nothing to do with climate change. It is just a cycle of hot weather. It could last six or eight weeks.
The cllimate change gurus say that there will be climate change refugees. Long before that happens I am going to need to be a hot weather refugee. Is it a reason to seek asylum? Where can I go?
I think I had better pedal off to the greengrocer and get some bananas before they go brown in the heat.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

After a week of successive 33+ degree days, my garden furniture is now too hot to sit on! We are also trying to work out how to use the built in watering system in the garden - when we are actually allowed to use it.

Rachel Fenton said...

So, just remind me, why do people emigrate to Oz? Because if boiling alive all summer and being scared to death of bugs and snakes (as I am), there seems to be little to lure me, yet many of my country folk are hopping over to the other side of the ditch as I type....and i thought the summers here were too hot! (and the bugs...don't get me going on the bugs again....)

Rachel Fenton said...

Hey, Cat, you can come here for a slight cool down!

catdownunder said...

There are some strange people who actually say they like hot weather, the hotter the better. mmm..you have just given me another alternative, Ireland, cool and no snakes. Now, how can I emigrate? I need the right sort of ancestors? Botheration! (Sorry about the cat hair.)

Holly said...

Hot weather is good, but you would also like San Francisco....

Rachel Fenton said...

I thought San Fransisco was all hills? I'd like to see you get your tricycle around town there! Haha!