Southern Hemisphere Autumn 2014

[Tyrone]

Had a few cold clear nights, but they are behind us for now. Yesterday hit 23C. Not bad for June on the south coast. Will be the low twenties again today, then rain tomorrow night as the high moves east. I'm sick of these short days though.

[tropicbreeze]

Tyrone, how are you adjusting to the new climate? That far down the short days would be miserable. Still, just a couple of weeks and the sun will start coming closer, and the days get longer.

We've done reasonably well with winter so far this year. Average minimum so far for June is 21.4 (May was 21.2). Darwin was May 23.3 and June also 23.3. A lot of advantages to being right on the coast. Our minimum the other morning was 25.0. But I think it'll start cooling down again soon. It's very dry, and the last few days very windy. There's still some water laying around from the late wet season, but cloudless windy days are drying it fast.

[Tyrone]

It's hard adjusting to be honest. Not that Perth was Darwin or anything tropical. The sun goes down at 5.04pm and doesn't rise until 7.15am at the moment. I've got heaps of lawn here that is growing like crazy, and so I ended up putting LED light bars on the ride on so I could mow at night after work.

The lack of day time heat is the big thing missing from here. But the nights have more cloud cover so it doesn't get quite as cold as Perth. At the moment it's 11.1C at sun up, but Perth is 4.9C. But we'll only get to 16C today if we're lucky and Perth will likely get to 19,20C due to clear skies.

I've got way too much lawn here, as the previous owners have let kikuyu grow everywhere. The lawnmower gets stuck on slopes and all sorts of things. I'm really banging the mower up. So I've been killing hard to mow areas to make into garden and reduce the lawn by about a half. But it's been such a big job. I've planted some palms and bamboo out, but the big plant out won't be until spring when I've got the place under control.

[empireo22]

It's hard adjusting to be honest. Not that Perth was Darwin or anything tropical. The sun goes down at 5.04pm and doesn't rise until 7.15am at the moment. I've got heaps of lawn here that is growing like crazy, and so I ended up putting LED light bars on the ride on so I could mow at night after work.

The lack of day time heat is the big thing missing from here. But the nights have more cloud cover so it doesn't get quite as cold as Perth. At the moment it's 11.1C at sun up, but Perth is 4.9C. But we'll only get to 16C today if we're lucky and Perth will likely get to 19,20C due to clear skies.

I've got way too much lawn here, as the previous owners have let kikuyu grow everywhere. The lawnmower gets stuck on slopes and all sorts of things. I'm really banging the mower up. So I've been killing hard to mow areas to make into garden and reduce the lawn by about a half. But it's been such a big job. I've planted some palms and bamboo out, but the big plant out won't be until spring when I've got the place under control.

Tyrone,

When you get the time please share some pics of your new place and garden. What kind of mower are you using?

[Tyrone]

Will do empireo22. If it's clear this weekend and I get some time I'll take some pics. The mower I'm using is a Craftsmen with a 38 inch deck. It's a gutsy little 17HP thing. If the grounds not wet you can literally do wheel stands in it.

[Tyrone]

Blimmin freezing here. Yesterday we had a min of 12.3C and a max of 13C with around 25mm of rain. It was warmer today, it got to 16C. Last week we had a 24C.

I'm glad I got the wood fire sorted out on the weekend. I've got that thing roaring.

[tropicbreeze]

Yes, looks like the blocking systems that protected us from the Antarctic surges have given way. Can see another surge lining up again. Clear skies are nice, but a curse on winter nights. Year before last I was in the south west, very wet and spring was late coming, dark and wet. Wild flowers were out but the locals said there weren't as many due to the late cold wet conditions.Once I got up north of Dongara the skies really cleared up and made up for the still cold nights. But Broome was good all round.

[Tyrone]

Perth got down to 2.9C this morning. But here didn't drop below 10C. At 9.20pm I'm now at 11.9C and Perth is down to 7.9C and dropping. It's going to be cold around sun up in Perth tomorrow morning. Thank goodness for clouds and the southern ocean.