Here comes the Sssssssssun! (Cue Thunder!)

It is still officially 'Early Spring' but apart from 2 cloudy days since our arrival back Down Under the Sun has shone and it has been unseasonably hot. It is 26 degrees at present but tomorrow is threatening 32.I must confess I did hastily say one day during Winter, as the temperature dropped to a chilly 19 degrees,"I can't wait for Summer to come back."I regret that now....it was stupid, I hate being too hot.I suppose that once we get up to Stanthorpe we will not have the humidity that we get here in Brisbane and the temperatures up there will not be as intense......on the whole......but we will pay for it in snakes!Snakes love the heat and mating season is just around the corner and well, I have already read predictions of greater numbers this year.I was reading an article today about a school teacher in Sydney who got bitten by a Red Bellied Black Snake outside her parent's in law's home.The article helpfully informed me that there are about 3,000 snake bites a year of which about 200 to 500 receive anti-venom. One or two of these, on average, will be fatal. Half the deaths are due to bites from Brown Snakes with the rest being from Tiger Snakes, Taipan and Death Adders.We have been here just over two years now.......It was our two year anniversary three days ago......and I have seen 6 snakes in that time and......nearly stepped on two of them. I suppose that is not too bad for all those days really.I have learned that they do not necessarily get out of your way when they hear you coming, that they still come out in Winter and, most worryingly, can still be active at night.As if all this was not enough to worry about with the coming Summer, experts are predicting a particularly bad storm season in the coming months......due to a particularly extreme El Nino event that is upon us. We are being warned to expect cyclones, hail, high winds and flash flooding.Oh Joy!Paradise is not all it's cracked up to be.