Cool change in Alice Springs

It was hot today, every bit the 40 degrees that we had been expecting since the weekend, but a few degrees lower than some of the other areas mentioned on the weather report, like Lajamanu, where 42 was the maximum, and their next 5 days are likely to be 40 or more.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first swim of the season. The water was cool, but not cold, and it was nice to get into the rhythm of a few (short) laps of freestyle and backstroke.  I hung out some washing and by the time I had had a shower and cooked dinner, the washing was nearly dry.  The cool change had arrived and I sat outside eating dinner in the gentle breeze, which gusted from time to time, causing a branch to scrape along the fence or a seed to blow off its tree and roll along the channels in the corrugated roof of my awning.  Above ANZAC Hill the kites (birds) were circling, playing on the thermals - a magnificent flock of over forty birds.

Gradually the stars came out and I wanted to sit there all night.  If I owned the statutory swag of true Centralians, I just may have been tempted to sleep out under the stars in the cool breeze.  To be honest it’s not exactly cool – according to my app, it was 32.1 at 6pm and is currently around 30 degrees.  It’s all relative, of course, as 30 is considerably cooler than 40.

As I sit listening to Henri Salvador’s cool jazz Chambre Avec Vue – I am at risk of falling sleep before I finish this entry.

Sturt’s Desert Pea

One of my favourite ways to get around Alice Springs is on my bicycle – I enjoy the rhythm of cycling while having an opportunity to notice more of what Alice has to offer.  We are just getting towards the end of the vibrant red displays of Sturt’s Desert Pea on the nature strips, on the islands on the road, and in gardens.  Even though I know where it is now, somehow the colour, so different from any of the other plants and natural features, still surprises me as I round a corner or ride down a street from a different direction.  Some displays are quite small, but there are several large areas which fascinate me – they seem almost over indulgent, as if the plant just had to burst out in a joyous profusion of colour.

The flower is named Swainsona Formosa after an English botanist, Isaac Swainson.  ‘Formosa’ means ‘beautiful’ – aptly named.  It only occurs naturally in arid areas of Australia, and is the South Australian floral emblem.