Life in St Arnaud

[Murray]

Thanks Devo.
looking forward to sitting watching them with you

[Buster121]

Good to see you getting them out hope others return, I know if I was to just open my doors they would be up and away never to be seen again

[Andy]

Well done Murray. Always a real worry when you start letting them out at a new location, I have done it a few times now. You do lose the odd ones but hopefully most will settle quickly. Good luck with letting the rest out. Good to hear Gordon has already made himself at home.

[Murray]

When we were driving to and from Bendigo yesterday, it's 110 kilometres about 70 miles each way, I noticed that the crops are looking a bit stressed. There is a lot of oil seed canola and of course thousands of acres of wheat. The crops seem to have slowed right down in their growth and a lot of the wheat had a yellowish tinge.
It was a cold winter and getting into the spring it's slow to warm up. Also we have had plenty of little showers but we seriously need some spring rain.
A month ago the countryside looked fantastic. If we don't start getting some warm weather and some rain shortly it might be a bit too late.

[Devo1956]

Does not sound good for the crops Murray, Is this year different to the last one?

[Murray]

It appears to be, Devo. Even though the daytime temperatures are near enough to the long term average we seem to have had constant cold winds. And while June and July had adequate rainfall, the last two months have been dry. The weather gurus are suggesting we are possibly heading for an El Nino weather cycle, milder and wetter. Haven't seen it yet.

[Devo1956]

It appears to be, Devo. Even though the daytime temperatures are near enough to the long term average we seem to have had constant cold winds. And while June and July had adequate rainfall, the last two months have been dry. The weather gurus are suggesting we are possibly heading for an El Nino weather cycle, milder and wetter. Haven't seen it yet.

I was checking China and Japan, in China it had been raining for 3 weeks. Japan also really bad weather and strong gale force winds.

[Murray]

It's turned cold and damp after a cloudy day that got surprisingly warm.
This is a shot from the back of the cottage looking out through the "cat lounge" I am putting up. We need to take one big tree and a couple of smaller ones out to open it up a bit, but it is a bit like a little park.

[Andy]

Looks very nice Murray.

[Murray]

The garden had become very overgrown, we have taken an amazing amount of stuff out of it and I would just be getting started but my wife is a bit more cautious.
I do admire her work with the little electric chainsaw when she decides something has outlived it's usefulness