Uta’s February 2017 Diary

This is early morning Monday, the 13th of February. I just had a look at what the Sydney Morning Herald published last night about the weather and I put this in another post this morning:

https://auntyuta.com/2017/02/13/hottest-place-on-the-planet/

Just now all this feels quite unbelievable to me. I do not say that it is not true, it’s just that where I am it feels right now more like a cool winter’s morning: The outside temperature is a cool 15 C. What a change from two days ago!

“The coast and parts of the ranges were the only areas in NSW to escape high-30s or 40s on Saturday.” This is what it says in Peter Hannam’s article in the SMH.

Further it says:”NSW and other parts of south-eastern Australia were the hottest in the world on Saturday, according to the Climate Reanalyzer website.”

Here is what was said about fire conditions a couple of days ago:

“Soaring temperatures across much of the state have led to warnings of catastrophic fire conditions. In Walgett, the temperature has hit 46 degrees.

As NSW faces the “worst possible fire conditions” in its history with ‘extreme’ and catastrophic’ warnings in place across large slabs of the state, RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the situation was as “bad as it gets” and warned it was set to get worse on Sunday when winds are expected to sweep through scorched parts of mid to northern NSW.

“To put it simply [the conditions] are off the old scale,” he said. “It is without precedent in NSW”.

As of 11am, the RFS reported 76 bush and grass fires across NSW with 26 not yet contained. Deputy Commission Rob Rogers told ABC news: “It’s going to be a really tough day.”

I am sure a lot of fires in rural NSW are still burning now. It is a huge task for fire crews to keep them away from homes as much as possible.

Here is a comment I made yesterday: “We were quite lucky today. we had an overcast sky, all day and a bit of wind and the temperature went no higher than 28 Celsius which I find very pleasant. The rest of NSW still has sweltering conditions and severe fire alert. Today, I was able to do a lot of reading in the Novel “Purity” by Jonathan Franzen.”

Heatwave Records in Australia

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/10/australia-swelters-in-heatwave-and-argues-about-energy-future

I just found the following in The Guardian:

“Sydney airport recorded its hottest February day ever at 42.9C, breaking a 37-year record. Wood said the month was on track to be the hottest on record in both Sydney and Brisbane, following on from their hottest January on record.”

Here is an article by the ABC about Australia’s heatwave:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-11/states-ready-for-extreme-heatwave/8261520

We live in Dapto, 100 km south of Sydney. Today, Saturday, we expect 41c. Right now it is still early morning and the outside temperature is only about 23C. We plan on driving to Warrawong later on, spending some time in the shopping centre and in the afternoon we want to visit the GALA Cinema to see a French movie: Rosalie Blum.

Yesterday afternoon my lady friends came over to my place. It was our Friday games afternoon. Erika is away in Geelong, Victoria, visiting some friends. But Barbara, Irene and Marion did come despite the heat and I not having any air-conditioning. I had our ceiling fans in the living room going the whole time. Blinds and curtains were in front of all the windows. We started playing at 2 pm. I think our inside temperature was then only about 28C. But three hours later, when the ladies left, the inside temperature had climbed to 32C.

February 2017, Uta’s Diary continued

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Edible things from the garden

Yesterday’s lunch tasted very good. Since it had not been so hot any more, we could turn the oven on to bake some lasagne. The red wine went very well with it. To the mixed vegies we added some parsley from the garden and parmesan cheese.

Yesterday afternoon we went shopping. Among other things we bought some fresh English spinach. I want to cook this today for lunch, serving it with some boiled potatoes and scrambled eggs. For desert we are going to have some Greek style natural yogurt to which we add some mixed berries.

Uta’s 2017 February Diary

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After a very warm night we woke up to beautiful, steady rain. In the house the temperature was still a warm 27C. Outside the temperature had dropped to a ‘cool’ 25C. So we opened all the windows and even the outside doors and had breakfast by the sound of steady rain. This rain was very refreshing. The soil outside smelled wonderful as it soaked up all this rain. Instead of switching the lights on we used some candles. I found this candle light and the sound of the rain very calming.

Last Sunday we went by train to Sydney Central Station and from there by street tram to Glebe where Caroline and Matthew live now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glebe,_Sydney

On Sunday the outside temperature in Sydney was about 35C. Matthew drove all of us to a vegetarian cafe where we had a beautiful lunch. I chose split pea soup and enjoyed this very much. Matthew had made us some of his excellent coffee before we did go out for lunch, and Caroline served us fruit and Pfefferkuchen. C and M live in a very beautiful place now. They are sub-tenants, but have the top story of the house all to themselves. After lunch M drove us to the park at the end of Glebe Point Road, which is near the water and there are lots of beautiful large trees and seats. I found this park a very relaxing place on a hot day. I was glad that M then could drive us back to Central Station where we caught the 3,29 train to Dapto,our home station. We were very tired and it did not take us very long to fall asleep on the train! Peter went to sleep with his open tablet in his hands. I could not resist to take some pictures of sleeping Peter:

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On Saturday we went to the Uniting Care Home in Unanderra. Sylvia had mentioned to us that her father would like to see us. So we had arranged to visit on that Saturday. Sylvia’s parents, C and E, are about the same age that we are. We have known them since 1959 when we all lived as recently arrived migrants in the Balgonie Hostel. Peter used to work with E at Waterboard when we still lived in the hostel. For Waterboard they laid pipes in lots of Wollongong streets. Well, it was a job in those days. Here is what our hostel looked like:

Click to access uow129011.pdf

On Saturday both Sylvia and her mum were at the home to look after E who does need a lot of assistance. He has to learn to use his legs again. He seemed to like our visit. He had not seen Peter and me for quite some time. E has his own room in the home. We were treated to a great lunch. Everything that was there for lunch S and C had been bringing along on the bus from Wollongong. They always catch the bus from Wollongong to see E in that Unanderra Care Home. It is actually a very good home for people who need a lot of care. Very friendly rooms and friendly staff!

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Last Friday I went with some friends for a birthday lunch. One of my friends had her 80th birthday celebrations!

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We are from left to right: 71, 81, 80, 86, and 82 years old! Every Friday afternoon we meet for some games of Scrabble and Rummy. We have been doing this for more than ten years. After that birthday lunch last Friday we all went to M’s place and played our games. We always enjoy our Friday afternoons. Next Friday afternoon the ladies come to my place. We all take it in turns.

Uta’s Diary, February 2017

Today starts a new month, the month of February. Last weekend Caroline and Matthew came to see us. It was a very hot weekend. The outside temperature went to nearly 40C at times. On Monday, the 30th, we even had an outside temperature of 42C. Amazingly we could keep the inside temperature at 32C, even though we do not have any air-conditioning.

The last few days in January I still took some more pictures which I insert here now.

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Things that grow next to the Laundry door.

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Last weekend Peter baked a beautiful cake with almond meal, a lot of eggs and a very tasty filling made with custard, butter and blackcurrant jam.

Caroline and Matthew loved this cake!

Why War and not Peace?

https://rangewriter.wordpress.com/2017/01/28/digging-deep-to-understand-different-viewpoints/#comment-8426

Rangewriter wrote a very interesting blog on the following subject:

“Digging deep to understand different Viewpoints”

I made a comment to it and asked a question about drones. She gave me a very comprehensive answer on her thoughts to the subject of drones and drone warfare. I wanted to make the following comment to what Linda wrote but the comments were not published at the time. Here is what I wanted to send to Rangewriter:

Thanks very much , Linda, for your thoughts on this subject. What you say, are good explanations. It seems to me that Americans (and we, their allies) are in a constant state of war. But why, why, why?
I read in a highly praised book the following:
” . . . greater equality, socialism, participatory democracy and peace are all within our reach, but nuclear war, work camps and slavery are also possibilities . . . ”

Uta’s Diary

Uta’s Diary, September 2016

Last August/September I did write how we had to get rid of some trees who unfortunately had grown in a very unsuitable spot. The above photos are from that time to show how bare the area near the fence looked. In the meantime we had a lot of regrowth. However, we have to make very sure that no new camphor laurel trees start growing again. Actually Peter did find some the other day and had to discard them. There were several among the bougainvilleas near the fence. They had already grown quite a bit!!

This bush grew from this:

dscn2235

to this:

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Why has the camphor laurel tree become a pest?

This tree is a prolific producer of seed. Some birds feed on these seeds, which then germinate readily.

Growing in suburban backyards, its massive root structure can cause serious damage to concrete structures and block drains.

In bushland areas it often competes with, and displaces native trees and other vegetation.
In these conditions it can develop into a single species community, depriving many birds and animals of their natural food supply.

http://www.australianplants.org/fskeleve.htm

Uta’s Diary, January 2017

We like to have lemon/ginger tea in the morning. A few days ago we went outside for our morning tea. The pot in the middle of the above picture is Peter’s pot for his drinking water. He has to drink each day a minimum of two litres of water to cleanse his bladder!

We had a lot of tomatoes growing. We very much liked the taste of them. Now there are only a few left.

Last Sunday afternoon we listened to some beautiful music:

It was the Europa Konzert der Berliner Philharmoniker from the year 2000. Among other things they played Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Wonderful!

On that Sunday we had also gone out for lunch. We went to have lunch in the Illawarra Yacht Club at Lake Heights.

https://www.google.com.au/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=yacht+club+lake+heights

The parking area was quite full but we found a good spot.

There was a bit of a misty view across the lake.

Peter chose Fettuccini with some ham and I had Fettuccini with lots of olive oil, tomatoes, asparagus, feta cheese and pine nuts. Tasted very good. However the servings were very large servings: All together a bit too much for us!

We also listened to another concert from the year 2001 from Istanbul:

This was a live concert from the Hagia Irene Church in Istanbul.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Irene

On another day, Peter and I had a few games of Rummy Cub, and while playing, we listened to some CDs with MUSIC BY GLENN MILLER !

Our Walk on Friday, 20th of January 2017

It had been a long time since we ventured for a walk in our toe-shoes. But we found out that they still did fit us all right. Surprise, surprise, on that Friday morning we actually got ready quite early for our little walk. We thought it would be important to walk before it got too hot!

Would it perhaps rain later on? Anyhow, we started walking across the grass in our toe-shoes. Our destination was the little playground in Lakelands Park. We had not been there for a while.

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On the way home we ended up among some trees. I published the tree pictures here:

https://auntyuta.com/2017/01/22/ich-bin-hier/

“Ich bin hier!”

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“Ich bin hier!” – I’m here! – Peter called out. I had just been shooting a few pictures. Camera ready, I took a snapshot of sneaky Peter. He had actually sneaked up on me. I hadn’t noticed at all that he was that close to me!