Has been lovely and warm. Now cooling down for some rain, and snow in the mountains- hopefully not here!! Bringing in the tomato plants.
When it's cold, rainy, & miserable, & I'm over wearing boring Bonds or Explorer socks, I buy a new pair of stripy toe socks to spice things up. Toe socks will, with tremendous energy, rejuvenate one's sock tolerance, as every time you look at them, while wearing them, you can't help but laugh. Especially when you wiggle your toes. You're then good to go for another couple of months.
On the topic of weather, my AC just vaporised in a loud, humphy sigh of sorts. It's 6 degrees celsius outside & 10 degrees in my apartment & dropping rapidly. … I can hear Melc laughing now… 'What a snowflake that Aussie is! 6 degrees celsius is sunbathing weather!’
Au contraire, Nathan. It’s 5C here and the ground is covered in snow. I’m definitely not laughing. The poor trees are bent over from the weight of it. Sigh.
I’m with Marta on the toe socks. I can’t stand to wear gloves as my fingers get claustrophobic; thinking toe socks would be just as bad.
I can relate a little bit, as it usually takes five to ten minutes for me to move past the these-socks-are-touching-my-feet-in-inappropriate-&-explicit-ways sensation. Likewise flip flops, or as we call them here, & aptly so granting context, "thongs"—the hallux & index toe strap just feels, somehow, someway, well, momentarily nonconsensual & rude. Again, however, after five to ten minutes it's all good, it's all fine, & I'm able to return my pepper spray to the kitchen drawer.
Oh Mel bent trees! We didn’t get that much snow, but we’ve been there before. Leafed our trees definitely can’t handle snow! My friend and I were harvesting rhubarb in the falling snow yesterday!
On a side, are you aware of any plants which have evolved in colder climates which benefit from, perhaps, even the more severe ramifications of colder weather? Such as damage to the plants structural integrity due to ice formation, or the freezing of cells in lower diameter limbs which would then lead, I assume, to cell rupture? Similar to the way many Australian plants, & plants around the world, require significant heat in the form of fire to drop their seeds? That some Australian plants require to be almost brunt to a crisp in order for maximum future growth to occur, for example. I know, for instance, that colder weather significantly reduces invasive insects, or possibly some types of mould which may harm certain plant species if longer periods of time allow these insects & moulds to capitalise on the plants themselves. I'm more so concerned with structural dynamics, however. Would the breaking of weaker limbs, or possibly even a trunk, due to the weight of ice formation, increase the structures durability (in some plants but not all) in the long term? Somewhat like a severe, natural, beneficial pruning of sorts? And to couch a caveat, I by no means pose this question as a climate change apologist, which may possibly lead members to engage in a political "debate". I pose this question independent of current events, beliefs, non-bielefs & what have you. Imagine I posed this question to you 100,000 years ago, while we were both freezing & huddled around a small fire while barefoot & wearing animal skin. You know, the question I posed prior to thinking out aloud about how we plan to avoid the saber tooth tigers, or short-faced bears in our attempt to traverse the next mountain range, & thus to fresh water, shelter, & food.
Very cloudy and and only in the 60s. We had a few nice hot sunny pool days but then the weather turned like this and we haven't been in the pool for over a week now. I'm so sick of it. Today is the first day of summer. It sure doesn't feel like it.