Early Onset Cabin Fever

The weather so far this month is rather odd.  I posted the following to Facebook on 18 July.

By 18 July my weather station had recorded a whole 3.8mm of rain. (BoM at the airport has only managed 2.8 mm.) The lowest amount previously recorded since my records begin (in1994) between 1 July and 18 July is 6mm (1994) and the highest 168.8 in 2015. The readings average to 47.6 mm. So, very dry!

For temperatures the word that springs to mind is warm. Only 4 days so far this month have an average temperature below the mean of past averages for the date.

While only 10 days have recorded a minimum above the average for the date 6 of them have been more than one standard deviation above the average. No days were more than 1 standard deviation below the monthly average.

For maximum temperatures 14 days have been above the long term mean but only 4 more than one standard deviation above the average. No days were more than 1 standard deviation below the monthly average.

None of the significantly high minima and maxima have coincided. 3 of the 4 significantly high maxima occurred on days when the minimum was below average. However 4 of the 6 significantly high minima were followed by an above average, but not significantly so, maximum. 

Of course as soon as I compiled that post the weather changed! The maximum on 19 July, and both values on the 20th were all significantly below the respective long term mean values.  That made the 20th officially a Cold Day. 

On the 19th I went out for a bird prowl, hoping to find and photograph the Nankeen Night Heron at Bucklands parking area.  Couldn't locate it but got a reasonable image of a White-faced Heron taking off from a jetty.

I visited a few other spots to see what was around, and the answer was "not much".   At Betka a Magpie decided to try to bum some food but I had none.

Frances decided she needed to emerge so we went for a drive to the airstrip to see if we could relocate the interesting birds I had found on the 16th.  The only colourful birds around were Scarlet Robins on the airstrip fence (we did find a female Flame Robin behind the buildings, but they are not colourful).  The Epacris impressa in the unslashed parts of the heath was colourful.

Before we went out (about 1100hrs) I had loaded the stove with wood, thinking to light it about 1400hrs. Soon after returning home (about 1330) I heard a crackle: although it all looked black in the firebox there was obviously a live coal left over from the 18th.  This wasn't a biggie and I let it run.  By 1630 the first charge had died down so I added a large half-round of stringybark in a way that I hoped would get it to burn slowly.  It had caught well by 1715.

By 1745 it was very well alight and I wondered if it might burn too quickly.

However by having the door firmly shut and the damper closed it calmed down, and by 1923 there was  just enough smoulder to keep the warmth happening.

Still nice embers by 0720 on the 20th.  More fuel was added and the fire kept going through the day

A little before the fire was recharged the sunrise had been pretty spiffy,

Towards sunset on the 20th the cloud formation was attractive from our settee.  Taken with my iPad as I was feeling too relaxed - possibly should be spelt L... A ... Z ... Y - to get my good camera!  

Some better photographs, I think from Coulls Inlet, were on the MCN Facebook page: I hope folk who are not on FB will still be able to see them.