Tag: winter

RDP: Winter

Seasons

We get a bit of fog here, especially in wintertime.

Unlike our friends in the northern hemisphere, we are about to start summer. However, in Tasmania, winter has taken quite a long time to go away. November had quite a few days when it was cold enough to need the heater on from mid-afternoon; there has been a lot of rain and even some snow at higher altitudes. The day that we drove to Sisters Beach for the first time was wet, windy and cold.

Still, I consider that we are lucky, in many parts of Australia November has been a month of extreme heat and bushfires in several states notably New South Wales and Queensland where many homes were destroyed and lives were lost.

I have often mentioned that I don’t enjoy extreme heat. It is one of the reasons that we decided to move to Tasmania which has a more temperate climate than the mainland states. However, I look forward to summer days when the sky is blue, the breeze pleasant and there is just enough warmth to go out without a jacket. By the end of summer, I’ll be looking forward to autumn and the changing colours of the trees. Winter in a place that gets a little snow but not enough to cause the havoc that occurs in colder countries can be very pretty and then just about the time that I get tired of everything being drab and grey the spring bulbs pop up and another cycle begins.

Sisters Beach Tasmania

Frosty

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.

Winter

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 potato
Baked 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.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Cold

Winter in Tasmania

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.

Our guide braves the rain.

Bruce taking photos on our Gordon River cruise.

A cold rainy day 20 May 2012.

 

 

Snapshot Sunday: Wattle

Wattle in bloom taken on my phone.

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.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Winter-Water

Winter-Water

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

Southern Outlet Hobart in winter
The Southern Outlet, the main route to Hobart on a snowy morning.

Incident on the Southern Outlet,.