Melbournes stinker of a day.

[Chris]

Ive just watered my trees and my goodness this morning was hot and now it's cool and looks like rain

[Greth]

Seems like there are a few showers going around, Chris, good luck, but don't expect more than a sprinkle.

[Chris]

I have just been looking at the national weather map and it seems there might be a cyclone brewing up in the north of Western Australia with another day of 40 deg in Perth.

[Greth]

A cyclone in NW WA will send a pile of rainbearing cloud down here Chris, so look out for rain in about a week. A cyclone system can make it faster from Port Hedland to Adelaide than an Express Post parcel, this discovered by experiment when my husband was living up there! Maybe he should have tied the parcel to a weather balloon, hmm.

[MattA]

Vanilla is really tropical, will only survive here if I can keep the frost off it in winter, keep water up to it in summer. But in the shadehouse it does have a fair shot at growing. Only have some shoots for now, this is a new acquisition, but hoping to get a vine in the fullness of time.
The next problem will be that it must be hand pollinated, I have heard only in the morning, so it is a long way to vanilla pods. Now you know why the stuff costs so much!!!

Mixed feelings about the firebreak, Matt, the fire got part of my olive collecting zone good news is I already cleared it of anything diggable this year, so no potensai lost, they are all enjoying growbox heaven at my place for a year or three.

The climate change predictions for SA could actually make this place a lot more liveable and better for agriculture, lets face it, nothing could make most of it much worse anyway. Would love to see an inland sea, all ya really need is a very long pipe to connect Lake Eyre to the ocean, its below sea level anyway.

I spent a brief time with a vanilla grower, polination does need doing by hand & in the morning, just be thankful you dont have to fight the mozzies, spiders & snakes that inhabit its natural forest ranges. i was so glad to be leaving after 6 days... heavenly place... hellish place...

Not too long now Greth & there will be no need for pipes... Australia is mainly sandstone.. what hapens to it when you dunk it in water With the amount of polar melt etc why have our sea levels not risen as they should? Where is it going? Thats right... under our feet!

Matt

[Greth]

You have some very interesting thoughts there, Matt! I wonder why that area is below sea level, maybe it was pushed down in the past by a sea and is still rebounding? The natives told the Europeans that there was a sea, maybe they knew something from an earlier time? Then again, the lake is big enough you could call it a sea when its full, maybe thats what the native memories were recalling, dunno.
At the moment we know where the water is, mostly filling up Queensland! But its going to flow south above and below ground, fill the lakes, increase the rainfall for SA, western Vic and NSW, turn a lot of marginal land into good farmland.
Way off the bonsai topic, but all interesting to think about!

[Ron]

The last two days have been stinkers again and yesterday we ended the day with two hours of thunderstorms and it's now been raining/drizzling since yesterday afternoon.

It's only 15C so it's back to wearing a jumper.

Anyway glad I'm not going be out in today's traffic on main roads.