.....I've seen that in Australia they are made of concrete instead, with a particularly smooth, polished surface. Funny...

I'd say as I've yet to see 1 of those.

Oh, probably they are rare. I've seen them on large playgrounds in tourist hot spots. Its concrete construction also looked expensive (compared to metal construction).

Example: Whale Playground, Scarborough Beach, WA:

B.t.w., I have never seen such large, elaborate (surely expensive), great playgrounds anywhere in Europe as you can find in Perth on the oceanfront, at the old harbor, or in parks.

A sunny and hot morning win.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

The mercury made it to 13C (felt like 11C) here today, but it's now down to 7C (feels like 6C) with a damp 4C being expected in the morning.

It also doesn't look like I'll get these outside jobs done anytime soon according to the 10 day forecast.

Cheers.

4 in the morning and it's 69f. Expecting 90.

Yay, overnight, I escaped the food desert. Almost like a clandestine dash before the locals noticed!


Today, enjoying the high heat :-) (Well, high heat for here, that is, at a gentle +28 deg C, 25 deg C in the shade.)

With that... Comes some hot frustration with a badly unreliable comms link... Still waiting to hear about fixing that tonight.

Meanwhile, time for a break and some food, yum.

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Ah the joys........
It's (for me) too hot outside, but I had to go out earlier today. So, I get in the car, and very unusually turn the air-con on.
£%^&*() it's blowing HOT air at me - dig around and find a suitable temperature probe and stuff it into one of the dashboard vents. $%*$&U*%^&* the incoming air is at 40C instead of a nice cool 10-15C. No surprise that the interior was getting hotter not cooler.
Booked in for a re-gas tomorrow morning after which, hopefully, a nice cool 18C cabin temperature will be resumed.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Winning on a cool Hump Day morning in the highlands while waiting on the big light and rain to arrive.

Cheers.

I just got in from harvesting the 2 rows of carrots in my huge wicking tub and got about 5-6kg worth which wasn't a bad haul.

I'll see if on Friday (after the rain tomorrow) I can give the tub a rejuve before putting 4-5 rows in this time.

Anyhow it must be time now for a LLB.

Cheers.

Midnight here at the start of a hump day. Thor’s in the close proximity. Just a light show with a few drops of rain.

Thunderstorm in Vicinity and Breezy
74°F/23°C
Humidity 87%
Wind Speed NE 23 G 31 mph

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The first summer heat has arrived. We get three days just above 30°C/86F... no clouds. Eventually small, weak thunderstorms in the evening (more like 'thunder' than 'storm'... that's why we call it "Gewitter"). Then around 27°C/80F at the weekend. Next week we are back at bearable temps with a maximum of 20°C/68F or even below that.

A remarkable event happened just one week ago near Gröditz on the border between Saxony and Brandenburg. A strong thunderstorm with an exceptionally large supercell slowly moved across the region. Extremely strong downdrafts occurred. The weather service analysed data and reported more than 140 km/h; 87mph. They believe no tornado was involved but downdrafts only. Countless old trees were uprooted, roofs blown off, cars crushed (from roofing tiles). All within a small area with a diameter of a few kilometers. It was remarkable because 17 high-voltage pylons (380 kilovolts) were knocked down (bend, not broken). Two lines with two systems each (approx. 2x1000 MW and 2x 750 MW) were destroyed. No falling trees involved. Repairs will take a long time.

Something like this never happened in summer before. Many years ago in winter some pylons of a 380 kV line collapsed in Münsterland (NRW) when overhead lines were heavy with an exceptionally thick load of wet snow and ice. The cause back then were the 80-years old pylons with unsuitable, brittle steel (Thomasstahl*), a known but ignored defect. Now in summer only due to a thunderstorm... strange. Well, these pylons also were certainly 60 years old, but there are no known weaknesses with this pylon type from socialist GDR, and they were definitely not rusty.




* In German we simply call it "Thomasstahl": "Thomas' steel"; made using the outdated Gilchrist–Thomas process.

About a 20-degree temp swing is expected today. Low of 68 and a high of 88. We had some unexpected thunderstorms. That's what you get for washing your car.

Got to love global warming.
https://www.weather.gov/ama/microbursts

Got to love global warming.
https://www.weather.gov/ama/microbursts

Thanks for that. It's clearly a new weather phenomenon for us.

Temperature at the time of occurence 2024-06-18 18:45 was 27°C/81F; a warm but not hot day. The latest analysis says downdraft reached at least 180 km/h (112mph). Small tornadoes occured here in the past (all 10 or 15 years) damaging minor areas in forests or blow down roofs but never steel pylons of high voltage lines. Normally, It requires meteorologists to carry out damage analyses on site (direction of falling trees, movement of objects) in order to discern tornadoes from downdrafts, as these are so short-lived, small-scale; their damage pattern difficult to distinguish.

Muggy hot outside.

Fair
88°F/31°C
Humidity 66%
Wind Speed E 10 mph
Heat Index 98°F (37°C)

Predicted 102°F/38°C
Feels like 108°F/42°C

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Winning on a damp Thorsday morning in the Northern Tablelands.

Cheers.

Just enjoying the last 30mins of sunshine here.

Cheers.

As the mercury here nears Frostville it's time for me to call it a night.

Cheers.

Time for me to draft my body out of bed. I'll watch the gate for you.

Beautifully pleasantly warm and I'm enjoying beautifully healthy food again.

Now 'just' to catch up with all the stacked up jobs around here...

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Winning on a P.O.E.T.S. Day morning as I wait for the jug to boil 2hrs before sunrise.

Cheers.