Goodbye Tropics (A heat induced ramble)

Yesterday I made the long journey down from the tropics of Queensland to the scorching heat of Victoria. While I am massively grateful I didn't endure the week of temperatures in the forties (and to all those who did, particularly those in areas around fires, my thoughts and prayers were with you, excepting my mum and brother who thought it was 'pleasant',) I was apprehensive about returning to my baked garden. 

I still can't quite bring myself to check on the worm farm and possibly see fifteen hundred fried worms. (The guilt, the guilt!) 

As I left our home-from-home in Queensland in the early hours of the morning, the cicadas were cicada-ing, the wind chimes were chiming, the pigeons were cooing and the air was moist and cool under a low grey sky.

As the plane flew over Victoria I looked down on a land dried to yellows and browns, the pale yellow fading into a haze of white heat and smoke. Stepping onto the tarmac beneath the high and unforgiving blue sky was like stepping into an oven - 40+ degrees. Knowing I still had a bus, a train and a walk from the station before I reached home, I meandered through the airport, making careful note of all the books I wanted to read in the bookshops. I have a list I'll share soon! (Thrills & Grins of palm rubbing anticipation.) 

I managed to miss my train at Southern Cross, checking out the new (to-me) shopping centre, but an hour in a cafe sipping iced tea is not such a hardship, although the poor air-con struggled and the sweat ran down my legs. My country train also struggled, jolting along the heat-buckled tracks at a snails pace, before giving up the ghost halfway home. We all had to get out and wait for the next train - but by the time it arrived I was so engrossed reading I missed it… I'm blaming baby brain. 

Twelve and a bit hours after I gave my little ones sleepy goodbye-and-see-you-soon-hugs in Queensland I hoist my bags over the gate of home while I racked my brain for the padlock combination, emptied the full-to-the-brim-letterbox and started as a huntsman spider ran up the local paper towards me. 

But I'm home now. About to commence making the house all 'shiny' for the little ones return. (Read, apply CPR to my poor roses and hydrangeas, rid the fridge of all it's past expiry Christmas stuffs, hide the evidence of their dead worms, and throw out and giveaway as many toys and clothes as I can so all the new Christmas goodies vaguely fit.)

I still have to meander up to the shops for food, but hey, frozen peas, tinned corn and olives is a healthy breakfast!