Stolen mail

Have you been losing mail? Not received something you were expecting? Finding mail not belonging to you thrown into your yard or had mail returned to you by someone up the road? It happened along Ellsworth last Thursday. A conversation with one neighbor showed a cheque hadn't arrived not long before and he'd had to ask for a replacement, we found mail for two other places on the ground and returned it to them. Someone else says she walked out of her front door on Sunday just in time to see two little girls, both under 10, taking letters out of her letter box! There were other letters scattered on the street, things they didn't find interesting no doubt. The letters they had were taken off them and they were roundly roused on, and reminded that what they were doing was stealing and they could get into trouble with the police. The two girls showed an amazing amount of arrogance. Demanded the glossies, saying 'they are mine!' Normally I like tough girls, but they are heading for trouble.

My friend picked up mail and returned it to houses they'd been taken from, and letting them know who has been pinching the letters. My friend is also keeping an eye out for them to see if she can figure out which house they live in so she can speak to the grownups. We'd all be hoping that the grownups involved aren't actually getting the kids to pinch the mail, and that they just don't know what the kids are up to, and really do wish for their kids not to get into trouble!!

Here's hoping, and keep an eye on your letter boxes.

Cloud cover

Amazing the difference a bit of cloud cover makes - it was 6.3 deg C outside when I got up! And that really does make a difference!

Syd Water, Killard, and bloody cold.

This morning the temp was 0.2 deg C outside my window, and the frost is heavier than yesterday.

I finally got round to reading the sign that goes with the mess that is still happening around the west edge of Tregear. Sydney Water is doing a water recycling program. Interestingly - notice the bit where is says "Work will be carried out in your area for approximately 4-6 weeks, weather permitting." I guess the weather wasn't being 'permitting' coz they've been here since the first half of April. And maybe someone noticed my April posting, or maybe it was coincidence, but the company name has appeared on the fences with the Sydney Water sign - Killard Excavations Pty Ltd.

New toy

I have a new toy - a thermometer that has a sensor outside as well so I can see the temp inside and outside at the same time, and it also gives me minimum and maximum temps for the day as well. At the moment it's 11 deg C inside and 1.9 deg C outside. It was 9 inside when I first got up but the heater is slowly fixing that! I just got the dog outside and there's a light frost in the back yard and the reserve has a white overlay. It's been frosting whenever it hasn't been raining or too windy for a couple of weeks now so I guess winter has finally stabilised!

Winter found us!

There's frost this morning. The reserve is all white, the back yard is crunchy, and the thermometre on my front porch says zero.

Rug up!

Where's winter?

We haven't had frost yet. It's all the cloud cover of course, but it's too strange to be this far into June and not have any frost when it usually hits in May and sometimes in April. I kept hearing people say that it was predicted to be a cold winter, but it isn't so. We are still mowing grass! At least if the frost hit the grass would stop growing! Bring it on!

Tregear Reserve Bushcare

Saturday 4 July 9am-noon

Saturday 1 Aug 9am-noon

Saturday 5 Sep 9am-noon

For more details call the Bushcare Team on 9839 6074.

Other things

Tregear seems very quiet lately. The mob digging up the footpaths are still there and they have progressed to digging across the roads, both Ellsworth and Forrester. Still don't really know what they are doing. Someone spotted a sign with writing way too small to be useful and the only words they could see while they were driving past were 'flow control'.

I've been way too focused on work (and after work recovering) to pay much attention to anything. Not good when that happens, I always tell others not to let work rule their lives. I get very cranky when I realise I've let work take over most of my attention to the point of not keeping up blogs so today I'm writing about something completely different.

Volcanoes! I've been getting Google news alerts using volcano as the keyword. (For those not in the know, go to Google, click on 'News' link at top, middle left is a link for 'News Alerts', pick a keyword that interests you and follow instructions.) We don't get all the volcano news in the regular news by a long shot. I'm amazed at how many volcanoes are erupting on our planet! Some we will hear about if it's a slow news day or if they threaten US interests, but a lot we don't hear about. There's also other odd things come up because there's a couple of companies with the Volcano in their name and the word is also used in a descriptive way in all sorts of situations.

Mt Redoubt in Canada, near Anchorage erupted a little while ago. It's still being active. They are pumping out oil from a terminal at it's base in it's quiet times.

Mt Chaiten in Chile has erupted to the point where the town Chaiten had to be permanently evacuated and they've arranged to rebuild it about 10 Km away. About 50-60 people refuse to leave. They have to use generators for electricity because it's been cut off and they have to carry water from clean streams because there's no running water any more. But they aren't leaving.

A poet who was researching for a book of poems about volcanoes went for a hike on a volcano on the Japanes island of Kuchinoerabu-jima and is missing. They have now given up the search. (No that volcano isn't erupting).

Mount Nyiragongo in DR Congo is being very active and they think it might erupt again soon. There's more than one active volcano there. Half the city of Goma was destroyed in 2002 when one of them last erupted.

The 'child of Krakatau' Mount Anak Krakatau is being very active again, it's closed to tourist traffic and is worrying people on nearby islands.

A volcano on the Galapagos has erupted and is threatening the ecosystem there. Lots of people are concerned because of it's historical connection with Darwin and the theory of evolution, but somehow I don't thing they can do anything about it!

Kilauea on Hawaii get into the news all the time, mostly because of it's tourist connection, but the scientists are now warning that it might not be as 'friendly' as they thought. It is capable of throwing ash and rocks around. They aren't saying it will happen again soon.

Tanzania’s Oldoinyo Lengai Volcano is delighting scientists at the moment because it has a very rare type of lava. The details are a bit over my head.

Barujari volcano on Lombok in Indonesia has erupted and caused the area to be closed to tourist traffic.

Mt. Kerinci, in Sumatra is increasing in activity, Mt. Slamet in Central Java and Mt. Rokatenda in West Nusa Tenggara are also increasing.

On the Caribbean island of Dominica is an old volcano, Morne aux Diables, that is highly likely to cause a tsunami when it erupts (they don't know when, but they stress 'when') because there is slippage and cracks all down one side and they are sure it will fall into the sea.

Shiveluch (or Sheveluch) Volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula released continuous plumes of ash and steam in late April 2009.

There's undersea volcanoes erupting all the time, they make great photos and fascinate scientists.

We even get new of volcanoes on other planets! Malea Patera on Mars has been featured recently with photographs and description.

Fascinating, eye opening, sometimes sad when there's news of people dying or being displaced by volcanic activity. We live on an interesting planet.

Australia is the only continent without active volcanoes. We're ok here in Tregear. The only natural disaster likely to be a problem here is flooding from Ropes Creek. It does flood. Locals say the floods haven't crossed Elsworth Drive in the 50 years they've been here, but it has come up to the top of the embankment in the reserve.

Dug up!

It's raining again. Just in case you hadn't noticed...

Someone is digging up our suburb. I should take pics but I haven't got round to it. Heavy equipment up at the corner of Forrester and Ellsworth, dug up footpaths along Ellsworth and up Forrester, huge holes on Forrester with what looks like cages in them. The equipment doesn't have a company name on it and I haven't asked them who they are and I suppose I could ring Council to ask but I haven't got around to that either. It's all turning to mud of course, and the covers over the drains are hopeless and all pushed around.

If anyone knows what it's all about leave a comment, if I find out I'll pose it.

ps, the May meeting for the Tregear Reserve Bushcare Group is on 2nd May from 9am - 12 noon. If you want further information call Council's Bushcare Team on 98396074.

Ropes Crossing doesn't like us again

Check this out:

http://stmarys.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/we-dont-want-a-bar-of-it/1461199.aspx

"residents fear that the core of the proposed hotel's clientele would come from outside the suburb.

They fear it will also attract antisocial behaviour, making the area unsafe."

I guess that's us!

Frankly, I think they moved in next door to us, if they don't like the area they can move out again!