Archive for the ‘Weather’ Category

Dust Storms in Brisbane, another extreme.

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

[ Updated on the 7th of October with pictures after the dust storm ]

Yesterday (23 September)  Brisbane has experienced the worst dust storm in 70 years with visibility dropping to 200 meter (normal is 25 km) . Also Sydney was coloured red as was on the news in The Netherlands. It was a strange experience when de sun was hiding behind red dust coming from the west (Outback). It was a nice cool day but too dusty to stay outside since it was causing problems for eyes and nose.

After the storm everything outside was covered under a thin layer of red dust causing a  lot of clean-up work. We have our own tank/rain water, but for people connected to town water, water restrictions will be relaxed to enable residents and businesses to clean up (from 12.01am (AEST) on Saturday September 26 to 11.59pm (AEST) on October 4). New dust storms are expected in the coming weeks and a new one is already expected for next Saturday.

Road to our house during the dust storm. Road 2 weeks after the dust storm.

Our house in dust storm. Our house two weeks after the dust storm.

Our dusty garden.

Our arrival in Australia was followed by many extremes and records. First we  have experienced extreme storms followed by extreme heavy rainfall covering large areas with water, but also filling up the water reserves in the dams. Recently maximum winter temperature records were broken by an extreme “heat wave” (35 degrees Celsius). And now we have experienced an extreme dust storm. (We are not even mentioning the financial crises as another extreme.) Nevertheless, we are still alive 🙂

Update of last month will follow soon.

Cheers,

All4



Mt Mee State Forest + School

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

After a wet start of the winter we’re now having many sunny days. Temperature differences during the day are considerable. During the day it typically is around 20 degrees and at night it can fall to 6 degrees (Celsius). Since dual layered glass is not usual here, temperature in house may decrease to 17-18 degrees requiring us to start the wood burner, or to invert the airco (NL: warmtepomp).

Sunrise is already at 6.20 am, but when Nicole and Jorick go to school at 8 am it is still cold. In their uniforms with bare legs. That’s why we bought them long trousers from the school uniform shop in uniform colors (we bravely follow the rules here).  Poor Nicole is only allowed to wear her long trousers on Tuesday when she is in sport uniform. On the other days she can wear some stockings (from the school uniform shop) under her dress.  They also have a jumper (also part of the uniform collection) for during the cold morning hours.  The sun is very powerful so an hour later the temperature is already much better.

The dry sunny weather in Winter is perfect for activities outside. One of our trips was to Mt Mee State Forest for a walk, a bbq and playing. We took an unsealed road to The Gantry which is a recreation area with barbecues and lots of space for a play.  The unsealed road was beautiful and we didn’t expect this so close (40 km) to our home.  Unfortunately the wood for the BBQ was wet, so lots of smoke guaranteed, but finally we had a delicious meal. The kids always love the barbies in Forest Parks.

unsealed road to The Gantry (Mt Mee) Smokey BBQ at The Gantry (Mt Mee) Hungry Kookaburras waiting for an opportunity.

The Kookaburra’s noticed our food and were waiting for an opportunity as usual. During our play they made several dives to our table. We  played some soccer and watched the birds.

New game: Keeper behind the goal.Somerset Lookout Black parrot

The Somerset Trail (4WD track) brought us to Somerset Lookout. On our way we saw some beautiful black parrots.

 

 

 

Leaving the mountain over the Sellin Road gave us some nice views over the area.

View from Mt Mee (Sellin Road). Sunset

 School:

 Nicole at Athleticsday Jorick at Athletics DayOnce a year the school organizes an Athletics Day with many activities. Parents and family is welcome to have a look. It was first planned a month ago, but then it was raining so it was postponed. It was fun. Nicole could jump very far. On the left photo she is joining a “running relay in the box”. 

You may have noticed that the  children always wear hats outside. That’s a school rule for sun protection.

Nicole had an excursion to the Osprey house about rubbish, recycling and saving nature. Lessons about sea life. Many animals get killed by plastic and other rubbish.

A week later Nicole had an excursion to the Osprey House. Jan joined as a volunteer and it was fun to see how the children learned about how to reduce, reuse and recycle waste. They also learned about how harmful rubbish can be for animals and the environment. Nicole found it very interesting. Following to this Nicole got an assignment from school to register all rubbish flows in home and to look for ways how we could improve reducing, reusing and recycling our waste. Not bad such an internal “rubbish consultant”. 🙂

Cheers

all4