I love the outback country as featured in this photo of the door of the Birdsville Pub. I have a great picture of my husband Reg in this doorway. It was on that outback trip that he began to grow a beard and he has never shaved it off and kept it off since. My man is a real bush man and not even a blackberry bold can lead him back to sophistication.

We got to 40 degrees here, and it has cooled down a little. Doors and windows open yesterday evening and awaiting the cool change to let in the lovely fresh evening air. Still sitting under the fan in my sarong working (writing) and loving it.

How have my friendly Australian's been coping with the heatwaves over the new year?

Friends of ours who live all year round in a caravan have invested in a larger portable air conditioner to help weather out the summer temperatures. Don't forget to drink heaps of water and try buying a child's swimming pool and putting it under the shade of tress and laying into with a good book to get though the hottest parts of the day if you cannot cool the home or caravan.

Personally I don't advocate going to the beach in a heatwave. Too much risk of burning your skin, getting heat stroke and swimming in the evening is fine in patrolled waters with friends, it is also when sharks are most active. I was almost shark bait one evening in the water at Beaumaris in Port Philip Bay.
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Temperature this morning has been perfect.
Woken overnight by a lightning flash and thunder sound like an explosion then a little cooling rain, not enough to wet the ground but it dropped us out of the 40's C or over the century for my northern hemisphere friends. Just a perfect day to write in front of a fan and a country view and exercise in the cool of the evening.