Last month it hardly rained at all. We started measuring our local rainfall on 8 August.
Since then we have had 19.3 mm of rain, and there's still no significant rain in sight, and
the Bureau of Meteorology predicts less than average rainfall for our part of Victoria. So
we're thinking of installing a ground water pump (“bore”, as it's called in
Australia), especially since we're right next door to the Dereel “Lagoon” (also,
more accurately, called “swamp”), and Chris Yeardley brought by an analysis made
of her bore water which shows that the quality compares favourably with that of German mains
water: you could probably brew with it. On the other hand, the property we looked at in
Swansons Road a few months back had a bore with water obviously high in iron:
Look at the colour of the water tank on the left. Clearly there's a wide range of
possibilities.
Off to take a look at the community bore round the corner, with intent to get some water
from there, but it's not clear that passers-by are meant to start the pump, which looks like
it's been there for ever:
Another day spent mainly in the office, though I did spend some time addressing a
seriously neglected brewing setup. Finally found the last part of my brewing fridge, but too
late to do anything with it today.
Off early to Melbourne today. Despite the dubious accuracy of Google Maps, tried their latest
route from Dereel to Melbourne: previously it had been via Ballarat, but recently they've
recommended a route via Geelong. It seems pretty much a matter of luck which is faster, but
today at any rate the Geelong route was better, and when they finish the western bypass round
Geelong (next year) it should be even faster. Got out of the car in the Queen Victoria Market
after only 110 minutes, and for once it was open. Yvonne was also
happy with the produce, a marked difference from last week.
Then off to Abbotsford to pick up a new scanner, an Epson
“Perfection” 4990 Photo. To get there was pretty straightforward: they're
just round the corner from IKEA, down Victoria St,
which is one of the most congested roads in Melbourne. Gave up after the Exhibition Gardens
and turned into Nicholson St, then down a parallel road to—Nicholson St. There are two
of them, in two different suburbs, and this road just happened to start at one and end at the
other.
Yvonne and Chris Yeardley spent the afternoon tearing down the
fences that made up the greyhound runs, happily not requiring much involvement on my
part:
