As Winter Draws Near

A frosty early morning.

Yep a bit cold.

Yep it’s definitely getting colder. Well so it should be it’s only six weeks until the Winter Solstice. Ah yes the shortest day of the year. After that’s over every day is just that bit longer again. The nights have been quiet cold especially those clear no cloud nights we’ve been having lately. These nights are fantastic star watching nights if you can stand being in the cold outside while the steam rises out of your nose and mouth. So many stars to see in the sky down here in Tassie and the Milky Way is just extraordinary. No light pollution in this clear no smog sky. The moon is waxing beautifully and is at its half way stage.

My front garden wearing a coat of white.

We are only 11 days into May and we’ve had five frosts so far and two very heavy ones, with everything facing south and in the shade still very white at 10 am. These are just a taste of more to come as we roll on into Winter. I do love the distinct change of Seasons down here. It’s such a nice change from the humdrum of the same; never vary much (only gets hotter and more humid) temperatures in North Queensland. The Autumn display of trees has been beautiful. Wherever I drive it’s a feast for the eyes, all those tones of red, copper and yellow.

I wonder how the animals like the colder nights. They are being babied with nice fresh dry hay on their beds to snuggle up into. The pigs still sleep three in a row like they use to when they were piglets, they’re so cute to watch. The chooks have finally learnt to roost I still have a bed of hay in there just in case they want to lie on it. We have two hens laying now the others can’t be all that far behind. One lays in a nesting box and the other one has a spot in the long grass where she’s made a nice little nest. Thank goodness she lays in the same spot every time. The Geese still go in to their pen at night to sleep on their nice bed of hay. We have fifteen now after we picked up two females from Deloraine way. So there you have a bunch of nicely spoilt animals. I’m sure they appreciate it.

As for us keeping warm, well we are waiting on our wood stove to come from the UK. It will warm up the kitchen and dinning area and we are putting in a wood heater to warm up the lounge and office area of the house. Nothing like a roaring fire to keep you warm. John and I use to sit in front of the old wood stove we had on “Varna” of a Winters night and we would read a book or I would knit. We didn’t have TV that far out in the bush at that time, besides we only had 32volt power. Amazing what you can do without if you don’t have it. The heat from the stove warmed our poddy lambs and kangaroo as well. They loved standing right up near it to keep warm.

One of the chooks checking out the frost.

The garden isn’t doing much at this time of the year. Some of the bulbs have started to pop their heads up they’ll make a nice display in Spring. It’s time for the plants to take a rest and hide from the cold just like we will be doing on some of those very cold days and nights to come.

Michelle