As if we hadn't noticed ....

The Bureau of Meteorology has just informed us that we have just lived through the coldest winter since records began.  That, of course is not all that long ago  - 1944 but we have had only four days of 20 degrees or over since the beginning of winter and today, a whole month into our official Spring, it is freezing cold with gale-force southerly winds and intermittent rain.  There are no yachts out on the river, with official boating warnings to stay off the water.

South Australia has had days of cyclonic winds and flooding with the whole of the State without power when the grid went down in a storm.

Yesterday I received a poncho made from Merino wool and possum fur which is so warm that I have ordered a coat in the same fabric.  There must have been a huge run on padded jackets since everyone seems to be wearing them and I have hauled out my down jacket which I used to wear when I cycled to work.  It is months since I turned off the central heating and the cats spend most of their time curled up together asleep.

I believe in Climate Change but Global Warming ...  forget it!

Today I am hopeful that I will finish spinning the brown fibre of the Petal Soft colourway.  It has taken a while but I am really in no hurry to finish it except for wanting to see how it all turns out.  I already have enough spun yarn to keep me knitting for some time to come since I spin more often than I knit.  My mother was able to watch television or read a book while she knitted complex Aran and FairIsle sweaters.  I am not that clever and need to keep a close eye even when I am doing straight knitting.

However, I still have my skein of possum fibre which D3 brought me from New Zealand and I have a pattern which I want to use.  The trouble is that it is lace so I am waiting for my Row Marker, after which I will stock up on dental floss to use as a safety line and hopefully I will have it finished before next winter.  Sod's Law, of course will decree that next winter will be the warmest on record and I will not need a possum fur cowl/snood.