More Seasonal Notes

I haven't looked in the beehives this spring yet, the weather not being conducive. The silvertop, I noticed last week when I went to my friend Pat's place for a couple of hours work, is flowering heavily in the bush east of Gembrook. I doubt it would be yielding honey in this cold, wet weather and bee flight would have been reduced reduced by the cold and rain. It's a far cry from the conditions of three years ago when the silvertop last flowered and the weather was warm, sunny and still, right through October, resulting in an early crop of honey the likes of which I'd never seen in this district.

The rainfall figures for September are up in the post office window. We had 200ml, far above the 30 year average of 126ml. It came a bit late to make this spring a good harvest from the garden point of view. Lilac is offering a reduced crop of blossom, same with pieris in most situations, and the dogwood is not promising. Rhodos have less flower than usual along with much burnt foliage and generally speaking our spring harvest of blossom is down considerably, no doubt a consequence of the extreme heat and dry of last summer. I'm wondering if the beech foliage will be similarly affected, or if this big September rain will save the day. They are just shooting now, and won't be firm enough to pick till well into November.

Maybe this rain will help set up a good spring next year. In the meantime the grass and weeds are about to explode into growth which will keep us busy. I'm hoping the cool continues through October with more rain to come. We had 6ml last night and it's cold enough again to be winter.

With our new tanks full Lib's talking vegie garden. Hopefully we can start a summer veg garden next weekend when Lib's holidays start. And if the weather's fine I'll fire up the bee smoker with some dry pine needles or messmate bark for fuel and check 'em out.