Brrrr.... it's cold outside!

Regular readers know I live in Perth, Western Australia. Actually in the info section in the side bar it mentions it too. Perth is classed as a temperate climate zone. You know, never too hot or steamy and never below freezing.  Well this year has been really weird weather wise. For the first time (that I can remember) I have woken 2 days in a row this week to find our lawn areas covered in frosty dew. Most of our two large lawn areas were actually white. A few friends that leave their cars parked in their driveway tell me the vehicles were covered in ice.

This morning was -2.4C (27.7F) at 7:30am and yesterday it was -1.8C at 7am. (I know you guys that live in snowy climates are saying pfft! So what?!) But these numbers are amazing to me, so far this year we have had the longest hot spell - with temperatures consistently between 40.8C and 43C (109.4F), and concurrrently the longest period without rainfall in several decades, which was broken by the biggest (and most property damaging) downpour of rain and hail which fell in the shortest period of time.  Now we seem to be having a real cold snap.

So for all you folk in the snowy climates... this is the problem (and the reason for my moaning)... our houses here in Perth are not built for such extremes of temperature. Only houses built more than 20-30 years ago have wide varandahs to keep the house cool and shaded, most modern house lots are small and covered almost entirely with building and have very little grass or trees planted around them. Also no one has central heating or floor heating, many people have tiled floors rather than carpets and all homes have giant windows in every room (and they aren't double glazed either).

This morning I had a luke warm shower... I only had the hot tap turned on... but the pipes aren't insulated here so the water was rather cool by the time it got to the shower head. I just scanned my fingers with my infrared thermometer, they are 19.9C (or 67F) I think I need to do some star jumps to get warm.

Now I know why I have been consistently choosing reds, oranges, bright pinks and yellows to stitch with lately.  I wonder if I can stitch temari wearing gloves???

Brrrriiinnng ooon Spppprrriiinnng!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(that was bring on spring - in case you missed it)