It's Getting Hot!

It is really starting to heat up here in sub-tropical Red Dirt Central. Over the weekend it was in the low 40's (about 108˚F) but has been a bit cooler the last couple of days hovering around 35˚C or 95˚F. The wet season officially begins at the beginning of November and the town Cyclone Clean-up is underway. Rubbish is being laid out on the verge for the street collection, a ncessary part of living here but not terribley attractive! Meanwhile the mercury continues to climb and it just gets hotter and hotter. It's not even really hot yet but I am certainly noticing it.

Last time we lived up this way (pre-offspring) I worked full-time so was in air-conditioning all day at work and then Hubby would flit home to switch the air-con on, thereby cooling the house for my arrival an hour or so later. He would then return to work and arrive home for dinner. All nicely organised and making the most of our ability to keep cool. As a stay-at-home-mummy this time round I am noticing the heat a lot more (please don't say it's because I'm 10 years older and more likely to be affected by heat and other such middle-aged issues!) . Anyway, Hubby decided it was time to bite the bullet and set up the pool. It's one of those cheapie round blow-up things but it is a decent size (about 10' from memory) and has a filter so the water stays good. We are onto our third year with it so the $99 was definitely worth it. We have put it around the side of the house as this section is out of the way and already mostly fenced, we just need to add a gate and will have that done by the weekend (no, the Offspring are not currently allowed out the back unsupervised). We have put up a shade sail so the pool is pretty much shaded and now we just need to pretty-up that section of the yard a bit - pull some weeds and maybe put down some pavers as a pathway as the blue-metal ground cover is HARD and hurts your feet.

Here it is in all it's glory. The clam shells at the base of the pool are a complicated system (devised by Offspring #1 and Hubby) for ensuring that feet are clean upon entry of the pool and allowing for drying off in relative cleanliness upon leaving!

And some pics of the offspring frolicking!