Love Is All Around Today

Friday 14th February, 2014

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.  We don't do anything special on Valentine's Day, it's another day that has become very commercialised.  I remember years ago it was a day of mystery, you would maybe receive a card or some flowers and a mystery note and you would try and guess who it was from.  It was so much fun trying to work out who your secret admirer was.  That doesn't happen so much these days. 

Well we have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous weather wise.  In the last 24 hours we have had so much rain.....over 75mm or 3 inches, and it has been the wettest February day since 1969. 

With the ground being so hard the water didn't soak in, it just ran off and so hundreds of people had flooding in their homes.  Also with the strong winds we'd been having, leaves, twigs and branches had blown off the trees and many of the storm water drains got blocked.  

Our vanity area leaked again but with Tony being home he could get into the ceiling and actually see where it was coming from.  Previously he thought it was due to the old air conditioner being rusted, but that wasn't the case.

We have a skylight in the area and the dome of the light was cracked which was letting the water in.  He siliconed it up and the leaking has stopped.  We will have to look at getting a new skylight though.  

The kitchen is progressing very nicely.  It looks as if it will be finished sometime today but I am not looking forward to the cleanup.  There is so much dust everywhere it looks as if we will be doing a very early spring clean.  We can hardly see out of the kitchen window due to all the dust.

All of my beautiful clean kitchen cupboards will have to be emptied and everything washed again.  Any offers of help will be accepted......lol.  The kitchen is looking good and we are happy with it.  

A Summer That Keeps Breaking Records

Tuesday 11th February, 2014

I know I sound like a broken record but this summer has been one of breaking records.  Today, the temperature got to 42C and so this meant we have had the most days (12 days) where the temperature has gone above 40C.  Tomorrow we are expecting the mercury to go even higher....43C.  

Thursday, Friday and Saturday the forecast is for rain.  Yeah right!! I'll believe that when I see it.  They say Adelaide may get 30mm plus on Friday.  Let's hope we do get some rain.  I am sure the firefighters that are still trying to control the Bangor fire will welcome it.  That fire has been burning since the middle of January and is still nowhere near contained.  

On Saturday night we went with Robyn and Bob out for dinner and then on to Her Majestys' Theatre for a night of Del Shannon and Roy Orbison's music.  It was fantastic!!  

The concert was a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the release of Roy Orbison's, "Oh Pretty Woman".  Dean Bourne sang Roy Orbison and Fallon sang Del Shannon.  They both had amazing voices and Dean Bourne really sounded like Roy Orbison.  They say he has the "spirit" of Roy Orbison with him.  

They rocked the Theatre on Saturday night and no-one left disappointed.  It was an amazing night, that no-one wanted to see end.

                                                 Photos taken from the Internet

Tomorrow the kitchen people are coming to finish my kitchen.  I have gotten used to having no doors on the cupboards.....at least it's cut my housework down by not having to wipe them over every week.  

And The Heat Goes On....

Tuesday 4th February, 2014

We have all just about had enough of this heat.  Not too many people you speak to are enjoying it.  On Sunday we had our hottest day ever for February ....44.7C and silly me went to a Kaszazz Demonstration.  They said that we would be having the larger room than what we normally do for our Card/Scrapbooking workshops and it would be cooler in there. Hahahaha.....it was so hot in there, the air conditioning couldn't keep up.

On Monday we had a small respite from the heat but during the night gale force winds came and caused havoc.  Trees fell on cars and houses, power lines came down and there are still thousands of people without power.  Even one of Adelaide's prestigious colleges had their windows blown out. The emergency services said it was the worst damage they had seen.  

Because of our hot weather the trees are under stress.  We have hardly had any rain and so the ground is bone dry.  When we get strong winds the trees and/or limbs just come crashing down.  Plus we have lots of gum trees planted as streetscape trees.  They grow so big, the limbs overhang house roofs and so when they fall, it's peoples' homes that get damaged. Gum trees have no place growing in suburbia in my opinion.

                                                                All photos taken from Adelaide Now

On Monday, with just a strong breeze a limb of a tree fell onto a 2 year old while he was riding his bike in the park.  He got a broken leg out of it, but others have not been so lucky (if you can call it that), they have lost their lives.  

It's not that simple to cut down and replace these trees.  Due to some very strange laws in this state any tree with a certain trunk circumference can not be cut regardless of whether it may fall and cause damage.  Also local councils are apparently not responsible for any damage caused by trees planted by them. 

I am not anti trees.  We need them, but there so many more beautiful types of trees that can be grown.   The nicest streets are those that have trees that are not too tall and have a shady canopy.  Gum trees are so messy by dropping their bark, leaves and limbs and hardly anything grows underneath them.  I would love to see them all replaced and just grown in the bush.