Thirsty Hedgehog

This little guy must have been very thirsty due to the dry weather and summer heat. I noticed him licking drops of water off the plants I was watering in the back garden. So I put a container of fresh water down and he lapped that up. Then he pushed his snout into some leaves and pulled out a weta. He crunched and munched his way through that tasty morsel until there wasn't a single scrap left. 

Baby Birds

On the first day of summer - four baby birds in my bougainvillea.

Mr & Mrs Blackbird were kicking up a fuss a minute ago as Winston Cat strolled down the neighbour's driveway. He stopped and stared at me as if I were to blame for the racket.  

The Long Hot Summer

Signs that it is an unusually long, hot summer on the Kapiti Coast:

• It feels like a Waikato summer with temps of 26-28°C. Long time Kapiti residents complain about the heat when it reaches 22°!
• It's 37°in the house when I arrive home in the evening.
• Darren is wearing shorts and sandals to work.
• I'm on my second lot of lettuce and petunias, and the tomatoes are fruiting like crazy.
• It's the heat not my aging joints limiting my speed around the squash court.
• There are a few more ripe customers than usual in the library.
• People are using their heat pumps on the cooling setting for the first time.
• Day after day of blue sky, sunshine and little wind 😎

 

Summer Heat

It was 27°C in the shade under the back porch and 37°C in the house when I arrived home after work. No wonder I worked up a hot sweat cycling home in the bright sunshine today. 

Yesterday Invercargill recorded it's hottest day since records began in 1921 - 32.3°C. Yes that's right, that cool little southern city reached 32°C!