It's time to batten down the hatches!

Today is going to be another quiet day spent at home. We've had wild stormy weather here in Perth the last few days with a severe weather warning set for tonight. On Sunday I awoke to a loud bang, only to find that our power was off and a powerline had come down on our street. It wasn't long before the winds picked up and branches were flying off trees into our cars - thankfully they were too small to do any damage. We were also lucky enough to get power back within the hour, although our street was cordoned off for the rest of the day and night as live powerlines lay across the road.


When I dropped Jesse off at school yesterday I was able to see the extent of the damage caused by Sunday's storm. Fences had blown off, a large tree had crashed through a neighbours roof, more powerlines were down and numerous trees had been uprooted. This comes not long after a tornado hit just north of us. I wasn't even aware that we got tornadoes here in Perth.

Now I sit here waiting nervously to go and pick up my son from school as the rain and wind lash against my windows. In Queensland, where I lived for the best part of my childhood, if a cyclone was expected, school was called off and everyone stayed at home preparing their houses for what was to come. Here in Western Australia nobody really seems to know what to do. We had wind speeds on Sunday that were typical of a category 2 cyclone and it is expected that tonight's storm will be much worse with strong winds and heavy hail predicted. I hope it doesn't hit until both my son and partner are home safe from both school and work. I stocked up on some basics down at the shops today in case we lose power and water. I really hope we don't. It would be a pain to lose all of the food in our fridge and freezer. Hopefully the power stays on long enough for me to get dinner cooked tonight.

Storms like this make me wonder if all the predictions that were made about Global Warming are really starting to come true. Are we, through our actions, causing this havoc? It gets me thinking about what I can do to reduce my carbon footprint. I really should get the compost up and running again and get back to growing my own herbs and vegetables. I have become really slack around the house since starting University and I'm not proud of that. Once this weather settles down I really need to get back into the swing of things when it comes to running the house and garden. Everyone benefits from it - families and the environment.

Just out of curiosity has anybody else noticed how unpredictable the weather has become lately? What do you do in your homes and gardens that help the environment? I hope to start taking some pictures soon to accompany my blog - I might start by photographing the damage caused by the next storm. Wish us luck here in Perth!