Rain dancing.

We all know that, according to Donald Trump and some of our own politicians, there is no such thing as climate change and global warming. Maybe they could explain the following.

With just a day to go, it looks like its going to be Sydney's driest September on record.
With only 0.2mm of rain recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology at Observatory Hill and no more forecast over the weekend, its​ expected to be the city's most parched September in the 159 years of weather data collection.

The previous lowest rainfall was 2.1mm way back in 1882.

Parts of western and north-western Sydney also hit record high temperatures for the month, including 36.5 degrees at Parramatta, 36.9 degrees at Richmond and 37.3 degrees at Penrith Lakes on September 23.

As a result we are having to do a lot of this.

Its so dry that to walk on the grass is like walking on it and a layer of frost, its all crunchy, to use a technical term.

No wonder the fire fighters in this strange land are busy.

Oh, by the way, I have a new mobile phone. Whats so strange about that I hear you say, well its the first one I have ever bought. Usually I receive hand-me-downs from Becky as she upgrades but unfortunately she wasn't ready to upgrade just as my old phone died. It died that convincingly that not even Graham could fix it.

I am now the proud owner of another Samsung.

Fathers Day continued.

Just before Fathers Day, while watering some garden plants, Di noticed something lying in the grass under the Grapefruit tree.

These photos are a reconstruction of what happened.

Closer inspection.

 

Whatever it was, it was very tightly folded.

Indoors for a closer inspection and guess what ......

....... correct, a One Hundred Dollar note.

Some of the folds have blue paint on them which match exactly with the paint on the station bench that I got for Fathers Day !!

As I dismantled the bench where it stood, under the Grapefruit tree and took the bits and pieces into the shed we can only surmise that this money has been lying there ever since, at least two months. Luckily we haven't had rain so I haven't cut the grass but we have had high winds. This note must have been folded up very tightly and wedged either between the slats or behind an end plug. It's obvious that this bank note has been there for a long time as the paint on it is from when the bench was last painted in-situ. What tales this dollar bill could tell ! 

What you may call a double whammy Fathers Day.

Fathers Day

Fathers Day was a few days ago but I hope you will find this interesting.

My Fathers Day started way back at the end of June with a phone call from Becky. She told me that she had got my Fathers Day present but we would have to take the Ute to get it. We ended up at an auction room near Bankstown Airport where this piece of railway memorabilia was loaded up. It was off loaded to stand under the grapefruit tree until we could decide where to put it.

This is a redundant NSW Railways station bench from Beverly Hills which is a station south west of Sydney.  There is no real significance behind this particular bench, its just that Becky and Graham know that I'm a bit of a railway nut and they missed out on one from Hawkesbury River. Sometime in the future I may change the name to Pheasants Nest but unfortunately there's no station there.

If you look closely you can see that a few of the slats need repair and some of the end plugs are missing. The bench was taken apart, repaired where necessary and repainted. The slats are actually made from fiberglass rectangular hollow section with plastic plug ends. Unfortunately the size of the section is a special for the railways and I couldn't get replacement end plugs so had to make my own.
The paint was replicated by a local hardware store.

After two months work this is how it looked.

As Fathers Day was just a week away we decided to have a grand unveiling.

On Fathers Day, which was also Bens birthday, he and Alex did the honours.

 As a temporary measure it has been put on the deck. I suspect it will moved a few times until we get the RIGHT spot. I hope it doesn't get moved too many times as its very heavy.

A lovely and unusual Fathers Day present. Thank you family.

A Joint Celebration.

We had a joint celebration at our house today, it was Ben's ninth birthday but also Fathers day.

Ben loves a big chocolate cake.

Running out of puff.

Nanna helping Ben to cut his cake.

Graham and myself had the usual big bags of chocolates but they will have to be saved for later because we have just had a loveyl lunch.

I had a wonderful hand made card from Becky, in a hand made envelope.

Inside was a flat hand made card .....

..... which popped up as a box full of wood working tools.

I dont know how she does it!!

A great day for all.

Catch-up 2

Just a few more photos.

 

 Sunrise through the kitchen window.

Taken outside.

Wonderful colours.

Normally seeing smoke like this when looking towards the Heights would be worrying but this weekend there is a lot of hazard reduction going on in the area.

 

 

The volunteers of the rural fire service do a wonderful job of clearing ground fuel for when the bush fire season begins. Just heard on the radio that the bush fire season has been brought forward by a month due to lack of rain this winter.

Catch-up time.

A lot has been happening since my last post but unfortunately not all has been photographed.

We have had a fantastic crop of oranges this year. We had them in every form but the best in my opinion is straight off the tree. I love just standing by the tree, pealing one, throwing the skin back under the tree and juice running down my chin and over my hands. Sheer luxury.

Lots of them were also changed into fresh juice. After doing so many I have very strong wrists.

Sunset over Kurrajong Heights.

 

 

 A pair of visiting King Parrots.

Adding to the wood pile after a trip to the property of friends Michelle and George 

 

 

Both the boys have been doing well at school but I only have photos of Alex.  We went to a special school assembly where he picked up these four excellency awards. Not bad for his first year in High School. Ben has also done well with a number of state awards but sorry no photos.

Alex has had a Japanese exchange student staying with him. A very nice young man with impeccable manners and good English.

Riu is a soccer tragic. He even bought his boots and soccer shirt with him. Unfortunately our season had just finished when he arrived but Graham phoned around our team and they put on a friendly match for him. If they all play like that in Japan no wonder we just lost an international to them.