November2022
Weather diary page
Nov 3, Kanagawa: November has been great so far. Sunny with highs in the low 20's.
Nov 4, Kanagawa: More excellent weather for the next few days, although it might be breezy at times.
Nov 5, Kanagawa: 10C out this morning. Should warm up to the high teens today with sun.
Nov 12, NR: Had the fire going as recently as a couple of nights ago, which is quite different from previous years. Not complaining at all - moderate, mostly dry days (low-20's), cool nights (7-13). Finally a spell of hot weather has arrived with today & the next 4 days around 30C. Ready to put the roof on the carport but there's no way i'm doing it in this heat. Appears to be a window coming after this when it will drop back to mid-20's so will aim for then. New friend! Drove home recently to see a brush-turkey wandering along the drive in front of house. They're fairly common in this area but have never seen one on my land - it's probably a bit too open for them, though the trees are growing fast so that's changing a bit. They're easily tameable - at bush picnic grounds they will eat out of your hand - in fact they will eat your hand if you don't watch it - though i'm a little concerned about the power-balance with all the other birds, which by-and-large seem to co-exist pretty peacefully. I'm especially fond of the swamp-hens & rails which have taken up residence here, so a little worried the brush turkey might bully them. Currently it's a moot point coz haven't seen brush turkey since, but they're ground birds so i assume he hasn't gone too far. Tea-trees were in full white-bloom a couple of weeks ago, just browning off now. Likewise with silky oaks. They are real crowd-pleasers - the orange blooms contain nectar that everyone seems to like. Apart from the usual honey-eaters, parrots, have also seen the raven, the friar birds, fruit bats, and even the butcher bird partake. The butcher bird, as the name implies, is a committed carnivore so surprised to see him getting into it. The Big Wet seems to have moved south, thank God. Floods still occurring in mid-southern NSW while it's raining a lot in Vic, though not enough for flooding. Mowed tree paddock in early Nov - left it a bit too late - hard going. Up to 3rd mow for house lawn, which i will do today/tomorrow. More wild-tomatoes have sprouted in the last week to 10 days. Other one is fruiting. Large plant size-wise but fruit needs to thicken-up - maybe one more month. Conducted the Great Spring Weed-whack & Mulching over last two days - easily one of my & my dodgy hips least favourite jobs. Bought 6-bales (bartered 18 eggs for one of them) plus used tall grass i'd whacked but it's still not quite enough - memo: go 8 bales next year.
Nove 13, Kanagawa: The last few days have been brilliant with highs in the low twenties and lots of such. Cold front moving in tonight. High tomorrow of 17 or so, with highs for the next five days not getting out of that range.
Nov 26 Run of warm-hot days - supposedly 29C but feels like 31. With a string of rainy/stormy days coming, have been pushing to get carport roof finished. Got the sheets up in 2 days (though not fully screwed down) during a nice weather-window of low-mid 20's, but have had to do the flashing & guttering in temps around 28-30 over 4-5 days. Bloody hard work - feels like double the official temp up on the roof. Roof is still not fully screwed down - probably need another day though might wait for the next cool weather window - hopefully it's screwed down enough to withstand the coming storms. Wild tomato is producing fruit apace - it's a tad over 1.8m high, which is a record. First signs of ripening on leaves, but only a little - still needs 2-3 more weeks, ba. Added some fertilizer a few days ago but that will be last feeding. Raised herb garden-bed doing well, especially dill, basil. Bought another one (10 days ago) & planted spring onions, lettuce, parsley - also going well. Poop-scooping the chooks' droppings from veranda each day and adding them directly in - not a bad system. Rails have disappeared for about a week to 10 days - assuming due to heat. Swamphens likewise disappeared a few days ago. Swamphens are in a group of 3 - apparently both males will mate with the female, then all three take turns to sit on the nest & raise the chicks. There seems to be a pecking order between the males, though they co-exist reasonably well. Wallabies are coming out each evening. I don't think they can see real good & rely mainly on smell & hearing. Whatever, they're not bothered by me using power-tools - interesting how they rank threats - guess they think 'well, we've never been attacked by a power-tool'. God knows how they navigate when they're bounding - they can go very quickly, but if eyesight is not good it's amazing they don't crash into more things. They may be using echo-location - read this week that even humans who have been born blind can also develop functional echo-location senses which involves using their cane to tap on the floor then bounce the sound-waves off of various objects.
Nov 15, NR: Heat has arrived - quite dry. Wondering if this is the turning point where we lurch from floods into an extended dry run. One observation about the weather of the last 2 decades is the erraticness. Meanwhile The Big Wet continues to the south with floods in mid-west NSW. There hasn't been huge rain - less than 100mm - but somehow whole towns are getting flooded. How much of that is due to rain and how much is due to dam releases is unclear - dam releases definitely playing a major role - saw footage of one release - it looked chaotic - like a typhoon sea. No doubt they are following some kind of protocol for releases but maybe they should be putting more store in the weather reports and releasing days before a deluge - not during it. Swamphens disappeared yesterday - assume they've moved down to the creek to escape the heat - though they were back this morning for some seed.
Nov 16, Kanagawa: 9.5C this morning, first time under 10.
Nov 21, NR: Dirty day yesterday - hot, windy,unpleasant - would've been a bad fire day if it wasn't so green. Report said 33 or 34 but felt hotter. More signs that we may have done the flip-a-rooney - Nov is shaping up as the first below ave rainfall month in a long time. Nov is known as storm-season where the wham-bamers come through from the west, but none have arrived so far this year & nothing in the forecast for week ahead. Swamhens returned - only gone for one day. Enjoying the big basin full of water in which they take at least one bath a day. Raven even took a bath yesterday. Meant to reach 33 today though feels much cooler than yesterday so far. Normal tomatoes are ripening - not a huge crop but ok. Planted some more. Wild tomato progressing well - has bloomed for almost a month now - still needs longer.
Nov 22, Kanagawa: Getting more frequent blasts of cold air. Today high of 18 but tomorrow only 12-14, then back up to high teens for a few days. US Thanksgiving (last Thu in Nov.) was typically around the time snow started in Misawa. It looks like it marks a turn to colder weather here as well.
Nov 24, Kanagawa: Sunny and warm with a high of 22 and low wind. Yesterday rained all day - miserable weather with high of 14 or so. This morning was crystal clear and the rain here was obviously snow on Mt. Fuji. It was 100% blanketed.
Nov 29, Kanagawa: We're getting an unusual blast of wet, warm air from the south, unusual for this time of year that is. It was 19 at 5AM. High today to be 21 with rain.