Tuesday 4 October 2011

Is it Autumn Already?

The weather this year has been odd, I think the most succinct description I’ve come across to describe it is; Summer during Spring, Autumn during Summer and Summer during Autumn.  And while the calendar might say October, the thermometer has been in the 30’s. 

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I am loving the extra warmth this year but the lack of rain is more than worrying.  Sometimes it’s the obvious things that remind you, the great cracks in the ground as in the pictures above and bellow or the depth to which the well has dropped, other times it’s the less obvious that suddenly hit you, in my case it’s the access to part of my septic tank.  The lid used to be level with the ground, now it protrudes 5cm/2in due to the shrinkage of the soil around it – I suppose the good sign from this is that the tank isn’t leaking SmileDSCF0295 tiny

Anyway, back to autumn, it’s migration time when I start scanning the skies for the cranes and storks migrating south for the winter.  So far I’ve not spotted any but I have been lucky enough to see a large group of golden orioles flit through the trees in the garden last month and yesterday it was 6 red kites flying south and then circling on a thermal just to the south of me.  They looked so majestic gliding effortlessly across a clear blue sky.

2 comments:

Mickle in NZ said...

Dear Deborah, springtime here is dry,dry,dry and then wet, wet, wet over the course of 8 or 9 days. The wind is windy all the time anyway.

I have broad bean (fava bean) plants flowering! I am counting each bunch of blooms on each plant so once each gets to 6 I can pick out the top to enjoy in a frittata/egg omletty wotsit while the plant will (fingers crossed) concentrate on producing seedy stuff.

What ever may happen, the days are warmer - and Zebby Cat spends his happy time under his battered quilty.His guesstimated aged is 13 1/2 so he is allowed this,

sending care and huggles to you and the purry furry darlings, Michelle xxxxxxxxx

the devolutionary said...

It makes you realise how dependent we are on the wet stuff falling from the sky. I've been waiting for the cranes too. Had some a few weeks ago but not the big three-day-long fly-by. Looks like it might start to get cold in a couple of weeks. The trees are all hanging onto their leaves at the moment and the flies are behaving like it's July. Weirdness.