Winter is on it's way

Yes, Winter is on it's way here. We are sitting on 2c at present. It was cold here on Anzac Day till we were woken to the noise of vehicles coming past our bedroom window at 4.10am. The first vehicle woke us, then the second one with red and blue lights came along. On getting dressed and going outside the kitchen door I could see to my left why we had red and blue lights, with more coming down our drive. The hay shed 50 metres to our left had caught alight with spontaneous combustion(no one hurt) but the hay shed. It warmed us up most of the day. Here is one shot of it.
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Holy Smoke Roseman , was it your hay shed ?

No thankfully, Maree, our neighbours.

All that hay up in smoke, what a shame. Is it dry up your way Roseman? A friend of mine has been dry feeding her horses for a while, not a blade of grass it's so dry.

Silky, "dry" isn't the word. Most people are feeding animals already and we have not hit winter yet. Oat crops have not received any rain since they were planted, 2mL of rain does count.

So a fair bit of feed was lost. Not good.

Yes Gary, a lot of feed lost, is right, upto 15000 bales. Also 4 tractors and other implements. It is not going to help as it is very dry and feed will start to be a premium.

To add to the problem of dry weather our frosts have started. The first was before Anzac day. So I am grumpy about that. But the hay shed fire puts things into perpective- all of the winter food gone in a flash. Terrible

An update on Winter, at present we are on minus 2.7

too cold for me.........[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Is this the shot you want placed on the "Mug Shot" page

I wish.....

Minus 6 here this morning. Thick icing of frost on the ground.

Thats not a good start to Winter Harriet, that getting close to our coldest in Winter.

Unfortunately it will get worse. It sucks the moisture out of the soil

What Moisture in the soil, ours left long ago, very dry soils here at present.

Yes good point. How often are you guys watering your roses at the moment?

Hariet, one good drink per week. With some luck, rain for us on Saturday. Then back to frosts and Winter will begin.

That is a shame about your neighbour's shed. Did he have it insured ?

not totally Karen

Only season I take time out from the garden after rose pruning is done and then back into it early Spring , well what I mean is I am not outside every day

Have you pruned already? Wow.

Not yet, started, slowly gets there by the end of July LOL, rely of the fortnightly green waste collections

To prune in May or early June can give a problem if there is a warm spell of weather and the plants break out into premature growth. The ensuring colder weather will halt this growth, and when the spring weather starts to warm up these early shoots will only result in stunted growth.......