As I mentioned in an earlier post it has been cold here. This morning as I waited outside for my ride I snapped a few pictures with my phone. We had a really big frost this morning which didn’t clear until well after 9 am. These were taken at around 8:30 am. In fact, when Donna arrived to pick me up I was unable to close the car door after getting in. Neither of us had ever seen that before.
Frosty Photinia
While I was waiting I caught the local garbage recycling van in the act of emptying a bin. Mine were not out as there was not much in either rubbish or recycle bin. On my own, I find I don’t need to put them out every week.
It’s 5pm and I’m sitting in the living room with my laptop on my knees typing. I haven’t yet drawn the curtains but outside it is almost dark, in this room, never bright at the best of times it actually is dark, the only light is coming from the TV. I need to put the lights on. It’s a good thing I touch type.
5pm on a rainy afternoon. 2 June 2019
The weather has been wet again. It wasn’t all that cold during the day but as the late afternoon showers set in it has got a lot colder so I put the heat pump on soon after I got home at 3pm. I do most of my blogging on the laptop in winter as this is the warmest room in the house.
Saturday, the first day of winter, was a beautiful day, the sun was out and the sky was blue. It didn’t last though, the next day was grey and showery and that seems to be what we can expect for the next week or so. There may be some snow falls at higher altitudes. Luckily I got all my washing dry on Saturday so no need to use the clothes dryer.
I have a sausage hotpot in the slow cooker so will stop in a moment to peel some potatoes. Winter means more casseroles, curries, and pasta for dinner along with the old favourites of stew and Shepherd’s pie. They are warm and filling and use the cheap cuts of meat too.
Sausage hotpot and mashed potatoBaked rice pudding and strawberry jam.
I don’t really mind winter most of the time but sometimes the lack of sunlight can be a bit depressing. I prefer the crisp, bright days of winter. There will be frost and fog in the mornings. The rain can be exasperating when it goes on for days and you can’t dry clothes outside and it’s too wet to walk to Geeveston to do errands but at least it’s cosy indoors and there is always the possibility of seeing snow. I know some of my blogging friends see way too much snow in winter but we only get enough to look pretty but not enough to be really inconvenient.
View from the front porch. Not even enough snow to be pretty.
Meanwhile, in England where it is early summer, the Cricket World Cup is being played and later there will be the Ashes Test series.
It is almost summer here so this week’s photos will be mostly reruns.
Compared to the weather some of my blogging friends experience in winter ours are pretty mild. Although mountainous areas get snow in winter low-level snow is rare enough that we get a bit excited about it. If we get some it usually isn’t a lot and doesn’t last long. Here are a couple of pictures from snowy days in 2015 and 2017. In 2015 we had some very heavy falls that came below 300 metres which meant that bus services to Hobart were restricted for a day or so. I was traveling to see David in the hospital during this time and the second photo was taken on one of those trips.
Untouched snow. This is about as heavy as it usually gets in Geeveston although higher altitudes will get more. Near Geeveston 2017
Taken from the bus window June 2015
What we mostly get in winter though is rain, frost, and fog. The damp and the greyness of almost everything is what makes it seem colder than it probably is.
We get a bit of fog here, especially in winter time.
frosty morning 2015
Bus Stop in the rain.
It rained almost continuously when we went to Strahan for a weekend. During a stop on our Gordon River cruise, our guide soldiered on regardless telling us about the flora and fauna and while Bruce and I took as many photos as we could.
One of the bus drivers that used to drive the Dover to Hobart bus used to say “When you see the wattle you will see the snow. ” Well the wattle is blooming and snow is forecast for parts of Tasmania tomorrow. I don’t think we will get any but more elevated areas probably will.
Winter is not quite here yet so here are some photos of winters past.
I remember this day quite well even though it was nine years ago. It was a fine Sunday, the first day of June which most Australians consider the start of winter. David and I decided to go for a drive to enjoy the weather and take some photos. I took this one somewhere along the Huon, somewhere near Lymington on the Channel Highway I think. That is on the opposite bank of the river to us so we had to drive north to Huonville to cross the bridge before going south again. The photo was taken with the little Kodak digital camera I had at the time and I have since cropped it as I did not know how to stop the date from appearing on the picture back then.
Huon River, first day of winter . 1 Jun 2008
The next three photos were taken during the big snow of August 2015. We do get snow in Tasmania but not the amounts that some of you get every winter in the northern hemisphere. This was heavy snow for us. I snapped the photo from the bus window on one of my trips to Hobart to visit David in hospital that winter. The buses were actually unable to run for a day or so but as soon as the main road was cleared they started again. It was a slow trip but I felt much safer on the bus with its big wide tyres than in a car.
A snowy day August 2015
The Southern Outlet, the main route to Hobart on a snowy morning.
Last night the weather forecast was for more snow down to the 300 metre level so I expected that there might be a bit on Vince’s Saddle where I took some photographs recently. I had to go to Hobart today but as the snow was not forecast until later in the day I thought it would be OK to make the trip. Although I was not expecting to take photos at the last minute I picked up the camera bag.
It was a cold wet morning and as the bus travelled through Longley on the way to Hobart I could see that the hills above the township had fresh snow. The rain changed to hail and by the time we reached Kingston which is 11km from Hobart it was hailing very hard. From Kingston the bus travels on the Southern Outlet to Hobart and as we continued the hail turned to sleet. Suddenly I noticed that the road was white, we slowed right down as did all the other traffic. I saw cars stopped at the side of the road whose owners didn’t want to continue in these conditions.
I was quite surprised to see how bad this was
Snow and ice on the road
Normally after the morning rush traffic on the Southern Outlet is not heavy especially going away from Hobart but now cars were banked up as everyone tried to negotiate the icy road and make it down to Hobart safely.
Cars stranded on the side of the road
The upside of this was that as we were going so slowly I was able to take photos out of the window without the usual problems of trying to focus.
I made it safely to Hobart but was concerned about whether I would be able to get home again later so after visiting Hubby I rang the bus company to check. The weather had improved by then and all the ice and snow I saw on the road on the way down was gone on the way back although we did have more hail.
Despite being a bit anxious about getting home I was pleased on the whole because now I have a “Which Way” for this week.
Cars bank up as the weather turns bad. This is about 4km from Hobart.
