don t cuss the climate
it probably doesn t like you
any better
than you like it

archy

It's hot. So hot that not only have the birds headed off for somewhere cooler (like Darwin or Alice Springs) but now the honey bees have given away pollen collecting. They were going about their business earlier with their usual efficiency. Maybe they were a little crotchety. A couple of them buzzed around me in a menacing fashion when I pruned the fan flowers, so I decided to let them get on with it. And the flies have settled into somnolence.

Not so the gate man, who turned up to apply the second and final coat of wood oil to the Gates of Nineveh on the side path.

'It's almost 40C,' I said. 'Are you mad?'

'Yes,' he said.

So that settled that. He's slapping on the oil at arm's length from the sliver of shade offered by the eaves. Still, the gate does look good.