December the First...First day of Summer?!

We are back in Brisbane after two cloudy and surprisingly cool days up at Frogknot. Thanks to the person or people who stole the good solar panel and the power regulator we struggled this week to maintain enough power in the evenings and spent two candlelit evenings. Firstly there was not enough sun to charge the battery fully and without the regulator when the solar panels were not putting power into the battery they were sucking it out. We have a new regulator but forgot to pack it!We spent most of the time this week sorting out everything under the back verandah, deafened by the cicadas and peed on throughout. We ended up taking 5 car loads of rubbish to the dump. It is very satisfying to see the difference all this work is making to the house.We had a night of rain on Friday night. The cicadas did not like it. They were silent the next morning and many were sheltering on the verandah poles. It was quite unnerving wandering around and have them flying off in all directions around you making their loud rasping sound.It became apparent that they make their noise when the sun shines and not when it is hidden behind the clouds. If they land on the ground they seem to find it very difficult to get air born again and face being eaten by ants. I have found a few dead cicadas, their thoraxes hollowed out by ants. Their large wings are quite beautiful and so I have taken to collecting them. Perhaps I can use them to make something interesting.I rescued one cicada rattling and flapping around in the dam by lifting it out on a stick. I found another lying motionless on the ground and picked it up to borrow its wings when it rattled to life and I flung it into the air and it flew off up into the branches of a nearby gum tree.Yesterday we also planted more vegetables in the garden. The soil was lovely and moist and surprisingly warm beneath the mulch. We will see if they survive being nibbled by kangaroos the next time we go up.We came home via Toowoomba. There are still delays at Cunningham Gap until the twelfth of December. They are still working on repairs following the terrible floods which raced down the range two years ago. Ros was up visiting Andrew who lives in Toowoomba and we called in to see them and pick up Will’s bike.By all accounts today is the first day of summer and Christmas is approaching fast!...I can’t get used to it.