Random Notes From the Southern Hemisphere: February 2009

27 February, 2009

Pic of the Day 27 February, 2009

Pic of the Day 26 February, 2009

26 February, 2009

Pic From the Past

Koh Tao, Thailand 2001

25 February, 2009

Pic of the day 24 February, 2008

Great to have you guys!

24 February, 2009

Pic of the day 23 February, 2008

Four reasons not to
drink Kiwi Gin:

Pic of the day 22 February, 2008

21 February, 2009

Video of the Day 21 February, 2009

Labels: Ceiling, City, Excursion, isobel, NGV, Water Wall

Pic of the day 20 February, 2008

Video of the Day

Before there was W...

There was THRASHIN'

Pic of the day 17 February, 2008

Pic of the day 16 February, 2008

After all the craziness of the bushfires here in Victoria this cheered me up.

16 February, 2009

The Big Dry 2

The Big Dry

13 February, 2009

More Strange Morning Light

Strange bushfire sunrise this am

Pic of the day 11 February, 2008

Pic of the day 10 February, 2008

The big dry

10 February, 2009

Pic of the day 9 February, 2008

08 February, 2009

Pic of the day 8 February, 2008

The fires did some very strange things to the sky tonight.

2009 Bush Fires

Today was the hottest ever day on record for Melbourne,
46.4*C which works out to about 115.5* F. That's stinkin'hot! It felt as if I'd put my face in an oven as the hot northern wind blasted down through Victoria and the city suburbs. I work a half day on Saturday and usually when I come home the streets are full of cars coming and going from their weekend shopping excursion. Today was different. The streets were nearly empty. As empty as a holiday.

Growing up in Kansas I'm no stranger to hot weather. One summer in 1980 we had 21 days above 40*C (104*F) all of these records that still stand today. What I'm not used to is the extreme dry that comes with living in a drought-stricken state. Trees are dropping their leaves far earlier than their usual seasonal change and they crunch under foot like a crispy potato chips spilled on the sidewalk.

As we decided it was too hot to cook we had a light lunch of hummus and zatar pizza at the local Lebanese grocer, went home & covered all the windows, turned on a fan and bathed ourselves with cool, wet cloths. Little did we know how bad things were only 50 kilometers north of our hot, dry little suburb...